Tokyo, 3 May, /AJMEDIA/
Japan Airlines Co said Thursday its net profit increased 2.8-fold to 95.53 billion yen in the business year ended March, lifted by a recovery in tourism demand after the coronavirus pandemic ended.
Sales for the year grew 20.1 percent to 1.65 trillion yen. Both net profit and sales surpassed the pre-pandemic 2019 figures for the first time, the airline said.
Robust international travel demand drove the growth in profit as a weaker yen lured more travelers from overseas. Sales of its international operations jumped 49.1 percent to 622.3 billion yen, exceeding the 2019 figure by 17.2 percent.
Sales of its domestic operations saw a 22.1 percent rise to 550.8 billion yen, thanks to increased tourism demand following the full removal of coronavirus restrictions in the spring of last year.
“I am relieved that we have been able to come this far,” JAL Chief Financial Officer Yuji Saito said at a press conference. “Demand recovery for the past year, including that of inbound tourists, was much stronger than we expected.”
The upbeat earnings followed rival ANA Holdings Inc.’s results released last week, in which its net profit rose 75.6 percent to a record 157.10 billion yen for the same year.
While the weakness of the yen, which dropped to the 160 level versus the U.S. dollar to hit a fresh 34-year low earlier this week, has contributed to the growth of inbound tourism, Saito said it also poses some drawbacks for the industry, which procures aircraft and fuel from abroad.
“It leads to higher fuel costs and aircraft prices,” Saito said. “While the impact for a single year is limited, it affects our business structurally.”
The weak currency also means overseas trips are more costly for Japanese tourists, he added.
“It is hard to see a recovery in demand for outbound flights from Japan given the current situation of foreign exchange,” he said.
For the current year ending March next year, the company expects its net profit to rise 4.7 percent to 100 billion yen on sales of 1.93 trillion yen, up 16.8 percent.
© KYODO
