TOKYO: Japan Airlines reported Tuesday its first black ink for April-June in four years, with passengers increasing on both domestic and international routes amid receding worries about the coronavirus pandemic.

Group net profit for the first fiscal 2023 quarter stood at 23 billion yen, against a year-before net loss of 19.5 billion yen, JAL said.

Domestic rival ANA Holdings Inc. also enjoyed a substantial improvement in its bottom line, logging a 30-fold net profit rise to 30.6 billion yen.

JAL’s consolidated sales grew 41.9 pct to 381.4 billion yen, as the number of passengers recovered to 93 pct for domestic flights and 65 pct for international flights compared to the pre-pandemic fiscal 2019 levels.

International flight operations were reinvigorated by brisk inbound tourism demand. Profits were also boosted by a rise in per-customer spending.

Sales at ANA Holdings climbed 31.6 pct to 461 billion yen. Its core All Nippon Airways unit saw the number of passengers on its domestic and international flight services recover to 85 pct and 61 pct of the pre-pandemic levels, respectively.

Despite their strong April-June earnings, however, both JAL and ANA Holdings left their full-year earnings forecasts intact, citing a slow recovery in domestic business demand due to the spread of teleworking.

JAL Senior Managing Executive Officer Yuji Saito said the airline will try to attract more foreign travelers to its regional routes in the country.

JIJI Press