Singapore, 3 May (Argus) — Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) saw its losses deepen for the fiscal year ending 31 March, adding to the problems of the country's struggling airlines and clouding the outlook for domestic jet fuel demand.
ANA's posted a loss of ¥57.3bn ($610mn) for the 2009-10 fiscal year, following on from losses of ¥4.2bn a year earlier. This is despite cutting its operating expenses by more than 7pc from a year earlier to ¥1.28 trillion. The company attributed its poor performance to a drop in aviation demand largely brought on by the global economic slowdown.
But the weak demand also translates to reduced jet fuel consumption, especially with Japanese rival JAL embarking on widespread cuts to its services to try and pare costs in an attempt to emerge from bankruptcy. Japan's economic recession, as well as improved energy efficiency, has seen the country experience its weakest domestic oil demand in 40 years.
Revenue from ANA's international flights fell 26.4pc in 2009-10 to ¥214bn from ¥291bn a year earlier, in spite of a 5.28pc climb in passenger numbers to 4.67mn and a corresponding 6.3pc rise in its passenger load factor to 75.7pc. Domestic travel revenues also slipped nearly 10pc to ¥630bn from ¥700bn as passenger volumes fell 12.8pc to 39.9mn and the load factor dropped 1.5pc to 62pc.
International freight operations for ANA saw a 19pc slip in revenues to ¥55.7bn from ¥69bn despite a 19pc increase in cargo volumes to 422,000t. Revenue from its domestic freight business fell 3.6pc to ¥31.8bn from ¥33bn with cargo volumes down 3.6pc to 458,000t.
ANA predicts a recovery in the current fiscal year, estimating a profit of ¥5bn on the back of stronger demand.
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