China Eastern Airlines has reduced its losses in the first half of this year and expects its financial situation will continue to improve.

The carrier says in a statement that in the six months ending June 30 it had a net loss of $51 million, 78% lower than the $226.3m net loss reported in the same period last year. Revenue rose 12% to $2.52bn from $2.24bn and total operating expenses increased 9% to $2.63bn from $2.42bn.

This translated into an operating loss for the period of $33.72m, 78% lower than the $151.7m operating loss in the corresponding period last year. A breakdown of the results shows revenue from passengers rose 15% to $2.15bn from $1.87bn and cargo revenues fell 4% to $327.48m from $340.71m.

China Eastern says the total number of passengers carried in the first half rose 9% to 18.3m from 16.8m. Domestic passenger numbers rose 8% to 14.5m from 13.4m; international passenger numbers rose 23% to 2.7m from 2.2m and passengers on Hong Kong routes fell 4% to 1.1m from 1.2m. Passenger load factor across all the routes rose 0.9 percentage points to 71.5% from 70.5%.

“China and the USA are about to sign a new aviation transport agreement and China’s aviation market will soon be fully open, so the group will face increased competition from Chinese and foreign aviation companies,” the airline says.

During the second half of this year, the group plans to add to its fleet three Airbus A330-300s, two Airbus A320s, four Airbus A321s, one Airbus A319, two Boeing 737s, three Embraer ERJ-145s and one Boeing 747 freighter.

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Source: Flight Daily News

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