Korean Air (KAL) has reported an operating profit of KRW395 billion ($355 million) for the year ended 31 December 2014, a major improvement on the KRW20 billion loss over the previous fiscal year.
Revenue over the year increased marginally to KRW11.9 trillion, while operating expenses declined by 3% to KRW11.5 trillion.
Despite the rise in operating profit, foreign currency losses dragged it to a wider net loss of KRW458 billion, compared to a KRW384 billion net loss the year prior.
Over the final quarter of the year, operating profit leapt from KRW18 billion to KRW153 billion, despite a 1% fall in revenue to KRW2.95 trillion. Operating expenses over the quarter declined 5.6% to KRW2.8 trillion.
Net loss over the quarter ballooned from KRW57 billion to KRW272 billion, as it took a KRW353 billion foreign currency loss.
Over the fourth quarter, the airline noted that traffic from Europe, China, Japan and Southeast Asia grew, while traffic on its Americas and Oceania services was down.
In the year ahead, KAL says that it plans to expand sales in Europe and the US through strengthened relationships with its Skyteam alliance members, as well as new alliance partner American Airlines.
On the cargo front, load factor increased by 1.6 percentage points to 80.3%, although cargo yield declined by 3.2% year-on-year to 30.7c per ATK.
The airline reported a 22% rise in cargo revenue from the Americas market, although China and Europe saw declines.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
