ANA heads for 20% profit drop, struggling to fill business class

Japanese airline group ANA Holdings is expected to report a year-on-year decline of more than 20% in operating income for the April-September half, suffering a fall in business passengers as corporations tightened their travel budgets. The US-China trade war also took a toll, causing a slump in air cargo including semiconductors and auto parts. More manufacturers and other corporate customers have shifted to economy class for business travel to the US, Europe and other long-haul destinations. For travel within Asia, many manufacturers appear to have refrained from business trips. Just this August, ANA introduced wider business-class seats on flights to London in hopes of capturing more demand for such travel. The parent of All Nippon Airways announces its H1 results Tuesday. Operating income likely will come in around 80b yen ($736m), below the 98.7b yen average of analyst forecasts tallied by QUICK Consensus. Revenue looks to rise about 1% to 1.05t yen, driven mainly by the launch of new routes, but still fall short of the market forecast of 1.07t yen. ANA does not disclose its estimates for fiscal H1 earnings. Demand for international cargo service missed ANA's targets.<br/>