China's big three state airlines lag behind profitable private peers

China's three major state-owned airlines continue to lag far behind their private peers in financial performance, earnings previews show, even as mainland passengers and cargo transport record double-digit growth. China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines separately said late Thursday that they all expect net losses for the first six months of 2024, with the red ink ranging from 1.06b to 3b yuan ($146m to $413m). Collectively, the trio's losses are expected to shrink compared with the same period of last year. But their aggregate net losses still add up to as much as 7.48b yuan, or over $1b. Their sluggishness is in stark contrast to privately run listed carriers such as Spring Airlines and Juneyao Airlines, which released profit guidance earlier in the week. Spring is set to post a net profit of between 1.29b yuan and 1.34b yuan, or an increase of 54% to 60% from the same period a year earlier. Juneyao expects its net profit to be around 450m yuan to 550m yuan, up by 7.2 to 8.8 times. According to official Chinese government statistics, the number of domestic air passengers rose 18.9% on the year in the first five months, to 267.73m. Those flying on international routes soared 316% to 24.31m, recovering from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, domestic air cargo was up by 27.7% to over 2m tons, while international cargo increased by 34.5% to 1.35m tons. Xiao Feng and Huen Ho Yin, joint company secretaries at Air China -- the biggest money loser among the domestic players -- blamed a "slower-than-expected recovery of international routes, intensified domestic market competition and factor price fluctuations in oil prices and exchange rates" in a filing to the Hong Kong Exchange.<br/>