Consumer China

Big three airlines return from abyss

  • Published 30 Apr 2009

A mixture of policy support and robust domestic passenger air traffic should help China's airlines climb back from record losses in 2008.

Last year was annus horribilis for China’s big airlines. Volatile oil prices, flawed hedging strategies, natural disasters and a slowing economy in Q4 all conspired to create combined losses of Rmb 28bn ($4.1bn, €3.15bn, £2.82bn) for the top three airlines – Air China, China Eastern and China Southern. This year, things are looking up (they could hardly get worse). But are the big three airlines going to return to profit for the full year?

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