JAL Q3 operating profit rises 2.9% on buoyant passenger demand

Japan Airlines Wednesday posted a 2.9% rise in operating profit in its Q3, aided by buoyant demand from inbound and outbound travellers. Operating profit for the three months to December was around Y46.2b, according to Reuters calculations based on the company’s results for the first nine months of the fiscal year. The company maintained its full-year operating forecast at Y166b for the year ending March. The results come a week after JAL announced that President Yoshiharu Ueki, who helped lead the company’s recovery from bankruptcy with cost cuts and code-sharing deals, would be replaced in April. The challenge for his successor, Yuji Akasaka, would be to regain market share from rival ANA, which benefitted from JAL’s bankruptcy by winning slots at Haneda Airport, becoming Japan’s biggest international airline in 2016.<br/>