Air China full-year profits rise 0.6 percent

Air China Thursday reported a 0.6% rise in 2016 net profit, underperforming analyst expectations as earnings were hit by the weakening yuan and rising costs. The company's profit attributable to shareholders of 6.8b yuan ($987.22m) fell short of forecasts from analysts, who expected China's flag carrier to report full-year reported net income of 7.35b yuan, according to 8 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Revenue rose 4.6% year-on-year to 114b yuan, it said. It made 4.2b yuan in foreign exchange losses due to the yuan's depreciation against the dollar over the year. Operating costs overall rose 4.2%, although its fuel bill, which accounts for about a quarter of its costs, fell 8.6%. It also increased passenger capacity by 8.6% over the year, while its revenue made per passenger for one kilometre fell 4.4%. Chinese airlines have been ordering new aircraft to take advantage of strong demand in the country for foreign travel but many of these orders were made with US dollar-denominated loans.<br/>