Asia's top carrier Japan Airlines said yesterday it had returned to the black, recovering from the SARS scare, but maintained its forecast of weaker earnings this year because of high fuel costs even as its chairman stood down on concerns over flight safety.
JAL said it earned a net profit of ¥30.10 billion (US$287 million) in the year to March, reversing a loss of ¥88.62 billion a year earlier after the group "cut costs and reviewed flight routes and frequencies."
The company said its international passenger business recovered from the tourism slump induced by the outbreak of SARS in early 2003 while international cargo traffic expanded on strong US and Chinese economic growth.
Going forward, JAL said it remains cautious in the face of "high fuel costs and uncertain international situations," leaving its net profit forecast for the year to March next year unchanged at ¥17 billion.
"Due to rising fuel costs, profits are expected to dwindle despite expected growth in revenue," Haruka Nishimatsu, executive officer in charge of investor relations, told a news conference.
JAL posted a recurring profit of ¥69.81 billion in the year to March after a loss of ¥71.94 billion, while sales rose 10.3 percent to ¥2.13 trillion.
For the current year the group expects recurring profit to more than halve to ¥29 billion but sees sales rising further to ¥2.21 trillion.
"Our competitiveness is falling in the domestic passenger business," Nishimatsu said, referring to a series of flight and maintenance problems that have caused the transport ministry to reprimand the company and ask it for plans to improve flight safety.
Earlier yesterday, JAL announced that its chairman had resigned, effective May 31, to take the blame for failing to prevent a recurrence of operational problems after a series of mishaps.
Chairman Isao Kaneko, 67, had already stepped down as chief executive officer on April 1.
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