China Eastern Airlines saw Q3 loss widen more than two times on year, three top airlines lost 73.8 bn yuan in Jan – Sept
China Eastern Airlines saw Q3 loss widen more than two times on year, three top airlines lost 73.8 bn yuan in Jan – Sept

China Eastern Airlines saw Q3 loss widen more than two times on year, three top airlines lost 73.8 bn yuan in Jan – Sept

 

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China Eastern Airlines, one of the country’s three largest state-owned carriers, reported its third-quarter net loss widened more than two times year-on-year to 9.38 billion yuan, making its net loss for the first nine months 28.12 billion yuan, the worst among the three mainland airlines.

The poor performance was mainly due to lower demand for air travel and reduced overall capacity due to the pandemic, as well as high jet fuel prices, which led to a sharp increase in costs, and foreign exchange losses for buying planes due to the weak yuan, it said.

The operating revenue of the airlines in the third quarter declined 7.3% on year to 16.5 billion yuan and recorded 35.85 billion yuan revenue in the first three quarters, only 40.79% of the same period in 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic.

The three state-owned airlines, including China Southern Airlines and Air China, made a combined net loss of 24.15 billion yuan in the quarter, bringing their cumulative losses in the first nine months to 73.81 billion yuan.