In the evening of July 11th, Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines successively released their performance forecasts for the first half of the year. According to the financial reports, the three major airlines are expected to incur an overall loss of 5.76 billion to 7.48 billion yuan in the first half of this year.
Air China’s performance forecast indicates that the company will experience a loss in the first half of 2024, with an estimated net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company ranging from 2.3 billion to 3 billion yuan. After deducting non-recurring gains and losses, the net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company is estimated to be between 2.8 billion and 3.8 billion yuan.
Regarding the reasons for the performance loss, Air China explained that in 2024, the company implemented cost reduction and efficiency enhancement measures to significantly reduce its losses. However, due to factors such as the slower-than-expected recovery of international routes, intensified competition in the domestic market, and fluctuation in prices of oil and exchange rates, the company remained in an operating loss state in the first half of the year.
China Eastern Airlines announced that it expects a net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 2.4 billion to 2.9 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, compared to a net loss of 6.966 billion yuan in the same period last year.
China Eastern Airlines stated that due to factors such as time restrictions on certain routes, insufficient airport resources, the company’s capacity in some international markets such as North America and Japan has not fully recovered. Additionally, intensified competition in the domestic passenger market and high fuel prices have led to an improvement in the company’s operating performance in the first half of 2024 but it is still expected to incur a loss.
China Southern Airlines announced that it expects a net loss of 1.06 billion to 1.58 billion yuan in the first half of the year, compared to a net loss of 2.875 billion yuan in the same period last year.
In the face of the complex and changing external environment in civil aviation development, with oversupply in the domestic market, challenges in the international market recovery, frequent occurrences of extreme weather, and high fluctuations in fuel prices, China Southern Airlines continues to face significant operational pressure, resulting in a loss of net profit in the first half of 2024.
In the first half of this year, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines are expected to have an overall loss of 5.76 billion to 7.48 billion yuan.
The financial reports previously disclosed by the three major airlines showed that the total loss of the three central enterprise airlines in 2023 exceeded 13.4 billion yuan, and in 2022, the total loss reached 108.6 billion yuan.