Regional carrier LATAM Airlines posted a 2017 net profit of US$155.3m on Wednesday, missing market expectations amid higher fuel costs even as it more than doubled what it earned a year earlier. In Q4, the Chile-based airline made $67.2m in net profit, up 23.6% from the same period in 2016, it said. A Reuters poll had forecast the company’s 2017 profit at $165m and Q4 profit at $77m.<br/>
oneworld
Finnair has dropped hopes of taking part in industry consolidation because politicians oppose relinquishing state control and will instead look to Asia to expand alone, its CE said. Finland's flag carrier, 55.8% government owned, has for years urged lawmakers to scrap a clause obliging the state to hold a majority stake. Former minister for state-owned firms, Heidi Hautala, failed to win support in her push for change. The current centre-right government considered the idea but dropped it and has no plans to discuss it again, two government sources said. Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo said any plan for a tie-up was "off our table at the moment" and said the airline, with annual sales of around E2.6b, aimed to expand on its own with a focus on Asian routes. "We will go for our growth opportunities and define our future by ourselves," he said. Europe's airline industry has faced turbulence with the collapse of Monarch and Air Berlin, while Alitalia filed for insolvency protection, although airlines also saw a rise in global passenger traffic in 2017, up 7.6%. Vauramo had said in September that Finnair was too small and had suggested tying up with a larger player would help, echoing comments he had also made in 2016. Relations with the state have been strained. The board member for management compensation said he would quit this month, after the government criticised the board's approval of a supplementary pension arrangement for Vauramo. A government source said Finnair's ownership was "just too sensitive a thing, politically" given the desire to have a state airline. <br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways expects airfares will recover further this year after four years of declines, a senior executive said, offering a positive outlook for the Hong Kong airline that sent its shares 7.6% higher Thursday. The carrier posted Wednesday a smaller-than-expected annual loss of HK$1.26b ($160m) due to a rebound in the cargo market, a slower pace of decline in ticket prices and lower fuel hedging losses. At an analyst briefing after the results, Cathay Pacific said passenger yields, a proxy for airfares, had fallen by only 1.5% in H2 2017, compared to a 5.2% decline in H1. H2 yields were 3.1% higher than H1. “We expect that the trend in passenger yield will continue the momentum we had in the last half of last year, and so far this year the trend has been promising,” said Paul Loo, Cathay’s chief customer and commercial officer. Cathay plans to add 4.2-4.3% capacity in its passenger business and 5% capacity in its cargo business in 2018, Loo said, with cargo yields expected to rise in H1 given stronger market conditions than a year ago. The rebound in the cargo market was a major contributor to Cathay posting a HK$792m profit in H2 2017 after an H1 loss. Cathay is aiming to boost profitability through a three-year turnaround program targeting HK$4b in savings. “We have done what we need to do to lay the foundation really to make substantive change in the business,” CEO Rupert Hogg told analysts, adding there was “still a lot of work to be done”. The 777 refurbishment will begin next month, with all 65 jets to be completed by the end of 2019, Loo said.<br/>