TOKYO: All Nippon Airways (ANA), Asia’s No. 2 airline by revenues, has returned to the black in the latest quarter, lifted by cost cutting and a post-SARS rebound in passenger traffic.
For the three months to Dec 31, 2003, ANA recorded a group net profit of 6.93 billion yen (US$65.71mil), compared with a net loss of six billion yen in the equivalent period a year earlier.
And ANA, which has racked up net losses for nine of the last 11 years and has paid no dividend for the last six, stuck to its target of a group net profit of 17.5 billion yen for the full year to March 31.
The airline has been slashing costs to cope with a deep slump in traffic after the SARS outbreak in early 2003, and counter tough price competition from larger rival Japan Airlines System Corp. – Reuters
