JAL maintains full-year loss forecast amid spread of omicron

Japan Airlines on Wednesday maintained its previous forecast for a net loss of 146b yen ($1.27b) for the fiscal year ending in March despite a surge in omicron infections. The company is now expected to post a net loss for the second consecutive fiscal year, but the loss is narrower than 2020's 286b yen net loss. It also expects 766b yen in consolidated sales for the current fiscal year, up 59% from the previous year. JAL on Wednesday also declined to pay a shareholder dividend for the second fiscal year in a row due to uncertainty over the future of air travel. For the April to December period, revenue rose 39.8% from the previous year to 498b yen. The company's net loss narrowed to 128b yen for the nine months through December, from a loss of 212b yen for the same period the previous year. "The freight business and domestic passenger service contributed well [to earnings for the October to December period]," JAL Executive Officer Hideki Kikuyama told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. With marine shipping containers in very short supply, JAL said its cargo business benefited, with demand rising especially from the auto and semiconductor sectors. For October to December, revenue from the cargo segment grew three and a half times compared with 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The domestic passenger business also lifted the company's bottom line after October, when Japan lifted the state of emergency. International passenger traffic, meanwhile, recovered steadily during Q3 on higher transit demand between Asia and North America. JAL also noted that Japanese nationals living abroad have started returning home and that domestic companies are beginning to send workers overseas again. To further bolster the bottom line, Japan's second-largest airline cut its fixed costs in Q3 to 346.7b yen, down 22.8b yen from same period the previous year. <br/>