Seven major listed airlines achieved collective profitability in the third quarter and made efforts to ensure full-year results in the new season

Reporter Li Wanchenxi Shi Lu

The third quarterly report of the listed airlines has been fully disclosed, and with the explosion of business travel and travel demand since the beginning of this year, the listed airlines have entered the performance cashing period. The reporter found that seven domestic listed airlines achieved collective profits in the third quarter.

Yu Bo, a researcher at Qunar Air Travel Big Data Research Institute, told the Securities Daily: "The demand for civil aviation passenger transport is strong, especially in peak seasons such as summer and Golden Week, and the number of passengers has reached new highs. From the perspective of operating results, the whole industry fully digested the losses in the first half of this year, achieved cumulative profit at the end of the third quarter, and the average fare with cumulative fuel costs also increased compared with 2019. ”

Judging from the performance of the three major airlines, the financial report shows that Air China achieved revenue of 458.64 billion yuan in the third quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 152.89%; The net profit was 42.42 billion yuan. China Southern Airlines achieved revenue of 476.61 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 62.42%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 41.95 billion yuan. China Eastern Airlines' net profit attributable to the parent company in the third quarter was 36.42 billion yuan, an increase of 138.83% year-on-year and 248.90% quarter-on-quarter.

It is worth noting that among them, China Southern Airlines has made a profit in a single quarter for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2020, that is, in 11 quarters; Air China and China Eastern Airlines, on the other hand, made profits for the first time in a single quarter since the fourth quarter of 2019, that is, in 15 quarters.

In addition to the three major airlines, the four major private listed airlines also achieved positive earnings in the third quarter.

Specifically, according to the data of the third quarterly report, HNA Holdings achieved operating income of 191.02 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 149.64%; The net profit was 24.95 billion yuan. Juneyao Airlines achieved operating income of 65.49 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 112.81%, and a net profit of 10.71 billion yuan. Spring Airlines achieved revenue of 60.72 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 105.75%, and net profit attributable to the parent company was 18.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year turnaround. China Express Airlines achieved operating income of 16.36 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 110.88%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 5478.40 million yuan, a year-on-year turnaround.

An airline executive, who did not want to be named, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the air tourism industry has ushered in a recovery inflection point this year, and the volume and price growth of the industry next year is worth looking forward to.

In fact, before 2020, China's civil aviation industry had maintained profitability for 11 consecutive years, and the cumulative loss of the whole industry in the past three years is expected to reach 4000 billion yuan, especially in 2022, the annual loss of the whole civil aviation industry will exceed the sum of the previous two years.

Since the beginning of this year, the civil aviation passenger market has recovered rapidly. According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, since the third quarter, the total passenger volume of China's civil aviation passenger market has fully recovered and surpassed the same period in 2019. The report of the 2023 National Civil Aviation Work Conference pointed out that the whole industry will strive to achieve breakeven in 2023.

However, after the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, the civil aviation industry ushered in a relatively dull winter and spring aviation season, and the performance of airlines in the fourth quarter has become the key to whether they can turn around their losses throughout the year.

After entering the new season, in order to ensure the performance of the fourth quarter, airlines actively launched new and increased flights on domestic and foreign routes. Some airlines have once again launched products such as flying as you like, and some private airlines have started live streaming with fancy marketing to sell tickets.

Juneyao Airlines insiders told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the annual performance still needs to look at the operation in the fourth quarter. With the start of the new season, Juneyao Airlines plans to resume a number of international and regional routes. At the same time, it has also continued to increase the coverage of domestic routes.

The relevant person in charge of Hainan Airlines said that after the change of season in the winter and spring of 2023, Hainan Airlines will add more than 110 domestic routes to and from Haikou, Beijing, Guangzhou and other places.

Air China said that since 10:29 on October 1500, Air China has begun to implement the winter and spring flight plan, with an average of about 170,2019 domestic flights per day and more than 2019 international and regional flights per day, of which the number of planned domestic flights has increased significantly compared with 70, and the number of international and regional scheduled flights has recovered to more than <>% of <> levels. (Securities Daily)