Hainan Airlines posts sound Jan gains

China's fourth-largest carrier, Hainan Airlines, reported booming performance of its cargo business in January, fueled by growing demand for airfreight transportation and its healthy operations after reorganization.

In January, the carrier saw sales of its cargo business expand by 62 percent year-on-year and net profit soars 182 percent year-on-year, making its revenue and profit for the period hit historic highs. The specific figures have yet to be disclosed, the company's latest release on Thursday said.

In December, Hainan Airlines transferred its core aviation business to Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co Ltd, its strategic investor, as the carrier's parent company HNA Group was in the process of going through bankruptcy and restructuring.

By the end of December, the carrier completed its work of establishing a cargo business department, the election of a general manager of the department and setting up an operational and management team.

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic made travel curbs a norm and led to the decline of flights in total volumes, the cargo business department of Hainan Airlines drafted an overall operational goal for 2022.

With reduced numbers of flights and falling capacity of belly-hold operations, Hainan Airlines adjusted its cargo transportation price and launched discounts to grab the high demand that emerged before the Spring Festival period. In January, it achieved stable sales growth of belly-hold operations.

Hainan Airlines has converted some of its passenger aircraft to freighters to increase cargo capacity and cater to a sharply growing demand for airfreight transportation.

The carrier has operated cargo flights between China and Toronto, Canada; Los Angeles, the United States; and Tel Aviv, Israel, using converted passenger aircraft. It has also promoted the bidding for more such operations.

Hainan Airlines operated 167 cargo flights using freighters that were converted from passenger aircraft in January, and the volume has increased 42 percent year-on-year, it said.

"Assets of Hainan Airlines are of good quality. As a leading carrier in China, it doesn't have major problems in safety management and operations," said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and a columnist at Carnoc, a major civil aviation website in China.

"But the company still faces multiple challenges in the future, including its huge debts, the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation sector and the coordinated development of several companies under HNA," Lin said.

Separately, Hainan Airlines said it would further raise its international airfreight transportation capacity and actively promote resource integration and operation coordination of its freight businesses. It plans to launch more high-quality international cargo flights and help stabilize the international supply chain to support the industrial development of China.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong Air Cargo, an affiliate of HNA, also grabbed growing business opportunities that occurred before the Spring Festival this year, and it put major transport capacity resources into high-yield routes.

The carrier newly launched chartered flights that connect Hong Kong with Bombay, India; Tokyo, Japan; Jakarta, Indonesia. It allocated fleet resources and improved its fleet utilization rate. In January, Hong Kong Air Cargo completed cargo and mail transportation volumes of 27,500 metric tons, exceeding revenue and profit targets for the month.