Air China has reported a loss for the first six months of 2023. The airline booked revenue of RMB 59.6bn (US$8.2 billion) – an increase of nearly 2.5x over the same period last year – and narrowed its net loss to RMB4.043bn (US$557 million) compared to RMB22.2bn in the prior-year period.
On a group basis for Air China airlines – Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines (acquired in March 2023), Air Macau, Beijing Airlines, Dalian Airlines and Air China inner Mongolia – traffic was up during the six month period – rising 200% to 90.8million RPKs. Capacity was also up by 167% to 128.8 million ASKs. The airlines carried 55.5 million passengers in total – an overall rise of 192% but with the majority of that growth thanks to the return of international travel. Load factors were up to 70.52% overall – 60.92% for international flights and almost 72% for domestic flights.
During the first half of 2023, the Air China Group introduced a total of 10 aircraft, including four A350s, two A320 series aircraft, one 737 series aircraft and three ARJ21-700s, and phased out two B737 series aircraft.
At the end of June 2023, the Group had a total of 902 aircraft with an average age of 9.05 years, of which the company operated a fleet of 493 aircraft in total, with an average age of 8.93 years.
At the end of the reporting period, the Group’s net current liabilities were RMB69,072 million, representing a decrease of RMB1,166 million from that as at 31 December 2022. The Group’s current ratio was 0.39, representing an increase of 0.15 as compared to that as at 31 December 2022. Air China has obtained bank facilities of up to RMB205,863
million “granted by several banks in the PRC”, among which approximately RMB87,828 million has been utilised and approximately RMB118,035 million remained unutilised. The remaining amount the airline says is “sufficient to meet its demands on liquidity and future capital commitments”.