Chris Jasper/LONDON
China Eastern Airlines has become the second of the country's big three operators to reveal disappointing financial results for last year. The Shanghai-based carrier reported a net loss of 632 million yuan ($76 million) for the year, compared with a profit of 332 million yuan in 1997.
The result reflected a 7.7% drop in turnover, from 9.366 billion yuan in 1997 to 8.645 billion yuan last year. Other indicators, reported according to domestic accounting standards, were also down.
China Southern Airlines, which reports to international standards, lost 544 million yuan last year after generating profits of 1.143 billion yuan in 1997. Turnover tumbled by 7.7% - the same as Eastern figures - from 11.481 billion yuan to 10.598 billion yuan.
The Guangzhou-based carrier's chairman, Yu Yan En, describes last year as "a tough year for all airlines in the region. The continuing financial crisis in South-East Asia, coupled with the slowdown in China's economic growth, resulted in a decline in aviation traffic."
The Civil Aviation Administration of China responded to last year's problems by banning fare discounting among Chinese carriers. China Southern, the country's largest carrier according to passenger volume and aircraft fleet, believes first-quarter passenger and cargo growth rates of 1.9% and 12.1%, respectively, point to an improvement this year. State-owned Air China does not report financial figures.
• Taiwan's China Airlines made a pre-tax loss of NT$2.96 billion ($82 million) for last year and blames Asia's economic woes and the crash of an Airbus Industrie A300-600ER in February last year. It predicts "a vast improvement" this year, and says it will "easily achieve" targets of NT$62.4 billion in revenue and NT$1.72 billion pre-tax profit.
Source: Flight International
