Japan Airlines beat its 2019 revenue and profit performance in the nine months to 31 December 2023, despite international traffic still being down significantly on that pre-Covid year.
That keeps the carrier on track to achieve its fiscal full-year guidance of an Y80 billion ($539 million) net profit on revenue of Y1,684 billion, it says, despite the business incurring an operating expense of around Y15 billion in the current quarter relating to the Airbus A350-900 crash at Haneda airport on 2 January.
It is taking a further Y2 billion hit from the runway closure caused by that incident but reiterates that “the impact on the business performance will be limited”.
Nine-month revenue of Y1,249 billion was up 24% year on year and 12% against the same period in 2019. That powered it to an operating profit of Y129 billion – four times its profit in the same period of 2022 and 13% up on 2019.
Its net profit of Y86 billion was five times higher than that achieved during the same nine months of 2022 and 15% up on 2019.
Notably, even though international passenger numbers were at 68% of 2019 levels during the nine months, international passenger revenue of Y472 billion was up 18% on that year and 64% against 2022, reflecting strong yields on such services during 2023.
Domestic passenger revenue of Y422 billion was up 25% year on year but almost flat with 2019 on 8% fewer passengers against that pre-Covid year.
Cargo revenue halved year on year in the nine months to Y76.6 billion but remained 71% above 2019 levels.
JAL’s low-cost unit Zipair recorded revenue three times higher year on year for the nine months at Y39.2 billion on a similar rise in passenger numbers. Spring Airlines Japan saw its revenue rise 66% to Y9 billion, also on a similar rise in passenger numbers.
