ATW Daily News

Shanghai Airlines enjoys first-half turnaround

Wednesday August 20, 2008

Shanghai Airlines earned a CNY23.4 million ($3.4 million) first-half profit based on domestic accounting standards, reversed from a CNY134.5 million loss in the year-ago semester, thanks to a CNY44.5 million government subsidy. It did not say what the subsidy was for, Bloomberg News reported. Instead it credited "the enhancement of marketing efforts and rationalization of the route network, as well as improving aircraft daily utilization" as key to the result. Operating revenue rose 26% year-over-year to CNY7.03 billion against a 22.8% lift in expenses to CNY7.12 billion. Passenger boardings climbed 14.1% to 4.9 million and load factor rose 1.1 points to 71.4%. Cargo traffic jumped 8.9% to 1.7 million tonnes. SAL introduced three 737-800s during the six-month period, expanding its fleet to 63 aircraft, and opened eight new routes.

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