Air China Swings to Profit as Postpandemic Travel Booms

By P.R. Venkat

Air China swung to profit in the first nine months of the year as business and leisure travel picked up significantly following Beijing's lifting of strict Covid-19 curbs.

The airline's profit for the January-September period came in at 791.42 million yuan ($108.2 million) against a loss of CNY28.10 billion, Air China said late Thursday.

Revenue was CNY105.58 billion compared with CNY42.09 billion a year earlier.

China, which imposed some of the strictest mobility restrictions in the world during the pandemic, lifted those curbs earlier this year. The Covid-era lockdowns severely hurt many businesses' operations, especially those in the transportation and hospitality industries.

"With the increase in deployment of transportation capacity by the company, and driven by the increase in both passenger load factor and price, the loss decreased significantly with a growth in profit," the airline said of its results.

Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2023 20:15 ET (00:15 GMT)

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