Air China has seen its profit in the first nine months of 2014 drop by 22.2 per cent to 3.1 billion renminbi ($505.3 million), which the airline is blaming on a weak currency.
Operating revenue in the first nine months rose by 6.7 per cent from 27.9 billion renminbi in 2013 to 29.7 billion in 2014. First quarter profit dropped from 196.8 million renminbi in 2013 to 97 million in 2014. Profit in the first half of 2014 fell from 1.1 billion renminbi in 2013 to 457.5 million. In the third quarter it fell 8.8 per cent from 2.9 billion renminbi to 2.6 billion. Operating revenue year-to-date (YTD) was up 6.9 per cent to 78.9 billion renminbi.
Air China chairman, Cai Jianjiang, says: “The aviation industry still faces many challenges and the operating environment remains difficult. The Group intends to adhere to the strategies while continuing to improve the customer experience and striving to generate greater synergies by working with our strategic partners so as to achieve sustainable growth.”
Revenue tonne kilometres (RTK) rose by 12 per cent to 1.4 billion, while available FTK (AFTK) rose by 15.5 per cent to 2.5 billion from July to September, which meant the third quarter load factor fell by 1.8 percentage points to 57.9 per cent.
Air China carried 1.1 million tonnes of cargo YTD, up 4.8 per cent on 2013. YTD regional cargo saw the biggest percentage rise of 22.2 per cent to 57,601.3 tonnes, international cargo was up 9.3 per cent to 375,360.3 tonnes while domestic saw the smallest increase of 1.4 per cent to 686,881.7 tonnes.
YTD AFTK rose by 15 per cent 7.2 billion. International AFTK rose by 17.8 per cent to 4.8 billion and domestic by 8.3 per cent to 2.2 billion. The regional AFTK saw the biggest rise of 24.9 per cent to 247 million.
The RTK rose by 9.7 per cent to four billion, with regional seeing the biggest rise of 23.8 per cent to 85.7 million. International shipment RTK rose by 12.8 per cent to 2.8 billion and domestic increased by 1.3 per cent to one billion.
The total YTD load factor was 55.3 per cent, a decline of 2.7 percentage points. The domestic load factor saw the biggest drop of 3.3 percentage points to 47.9 per cent. The regional load factor saw the smallest decrease of 0.3 percentage points to 34.7 per cent. The international load factor was down 2.7 percentage points to 59.8 per cent.
