Japan Airlines reports first quarterly net profit in three years

Japan Airlines has logged its first quarterly net profit in nearly three years as it emerges from the bruising effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said on Tuesday. Japan's second-largest airline by revenue said it expects domestic travel to rebound to nearly pre-pandemic levels by March, though a recovery in international demand, particularly from China, remains further off. "We are confident that we are realizing a steady recovery," Hideki Kikuyama, representative director at JAL, told reporters after the airline released its second-quarter earnings. JAL posted a quarterly net profit of 17.4b yen ($118m) for July-September, its first since the final three months of 2019. The company was hit hard by the pandemic as countries closed their borders and travel demand evaporated, and was slower than its bigger domestic rival, All Nippon Airways, to turn its performance around. In the April-June quarter, JAL posted a net loss of 19.5b yen, and a net loss of 2.1b yen for the first six months of this fiscal year, compared to ANA's net profit for the first two quarters. Kikuyama attributed the return to profit in part to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions globally and the re-opening of Japan's borders to foreign tourists last month. Cost-cutting was another factor, he said, citing examples such as a reduction in outsourcing for some work. JAL expects the number of its passengers on domestic routes to bounce back to 95% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this fiscal year, which ends next March, as the Japanese government attempts to buoy local travel demand. However, JAL expects international travel will take longer to recover. It expects passenger numbers on international routes to be just 60% of what they were before the pandemic by the end of March. A lack of Chinese tourists is expected to weigh heavily on that recovery, Kikuyama said.<br/>