A passenger jet from Japanese carrier Japan Airlines (JAL) takes off past another at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda on Feb 2, 2023. — AFP
TOKYO: Japan Airlines Co on Tuesday forecast a 60% rise in net profit for the current business year as travel demand recovers further from the COVID-19 pandemic, and after swinging back to the black for the first time in three years.
For the business year to March 2024, JAL expects a group net profit of 55 billion yen ($399.8 million), compared with 34.4 billion yen last year. Nine analysts surveyed by Refinitiv forecast a mean profit of 75.3 billion yen.
A pick-up in travel demand throughout the last fiscal year offset higher fuel costs to help Japan's second-largest airline return to profit.
Domestic demand is expected to return to 94% of pre-COVID levels during the current business year, while demand for international travel is seen recovering to 65%, the company said.
Group revenue is expected to rise 20.5% to 1.66 trillion yen, it said.
Last month, the country's top airline ANA Holdings also reported an annual profit and expected a further rise this year. - Reuters
