ID :
108794
Fri, 02/26/2010 - 23:15
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/108794
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JAL`s April-December net loss expands to record 177.98 bil. yen
TOKYO, Feb. 26 Kyodo -
Japan Airlines Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, said
Friday its group net loss in the April to December period expanded to 177.98
billion yen, the biggest sum ever, due to sagging demand particularly among
business travelers.
The loss widened from the year-earlier 1.92 billion yen loss and the 131.22
billion yen booked in the first six months of the fiscal year, marking a
record-high since the airline merged operations with Japan Air System in 2002.
JAL said, meanwhile, that it will set up a committee made up of third-party
experts to investigate whether past management practices were compliant with
the law, as the nation's biggest carrier has come under scrutiny since the
government pumped in public funds to keep it flying.
The committee will be established next Tuesday and is expected to submit a
report by early June.
JAL, which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 20, is now
undergoing a rehabilitation process sponsored by the state-backed Enterprise
Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan. It submitted the earnings result to the
Kanto Local Finance Bureau.
For the first nine months of fiscal 2009, JAL booked an operating loss of
120.83 billion yen, compared with a loss of 8.86 billion yen in the same period
the previous year, on revenue of 1.14 trillion yen, down 26.6 percent.
Revenue from international flight passengers fell 41 percent from a year
earlier to 336.3 billion yen while revenue from domestic passengers slid 12.5
percent to 455.7 billion yen.
Norikazu Saito, JAL's executive officer in charge of finance and investor
relations, attributed the decline in revenue to price erosion caused by fewer
business class users due to the economic downturn and the spread of the new
influenza.
The company did not provide an earnings outlook for the whole business year
through March because it is still in the process of compiling the restructuring
plan, which is expected to be completed by June.
Meanwhile, Akitoshi Nakamura, JAL's administrator and representative director
of the state-backed corporate turnaround body, indicated the airline may not
need all of the 600 billion yen in the credit line set aside by the state-owned
Development Bank of Japan to aid its rehabilitation process.
''We were able to avoid the worst-case scenario,'' Nakamura said, adding the
bankruptcy filing did not cause serious turmoil or drive away customers as
initially anticipated. So far, the airline has tapped into about 300 billion
yen of the credit line, he added.
ETIC earlier estimated that JAL would book a group operating loss of around
265.1 billion yen by the end of fiscal 2009, but Nakamura said the loss is
likely to be smaller, without providing any specific figure.
He said the state-backed body still expects the airline to return to the black
with an operating profit of 24.1 billion yen by fiscal 2011 through March 2012.
==Kyodo
Japan Airlines Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, said
Friday its group net loss in the April to December period expanded to 177.98
billion yen, the biggest sum ever, due to sagging demand particularly among
business travelers.
The loss widened from the year-earlier 1.92 billion yen loss and the 131.22
billion yen booked in the first six months of the fiscal year, marking a
record-high since the airline merged operations with Japan Air System in 2002.
JAL said, meanwhile, that it will set up a committee made up of third-party
experts to investigate whether past management practices were compliant with
the law, as the nation's biggest carrier has come under scrutiny since the
government pumped in public funds to keep it flying.
The committee will be established next Tuesday and is expected to submit a
report by early June.
JAL, which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 20, is now
undergoing a rehabilitation process sponsored by the state-backed Enterprise
Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan. It submitted the earnings result to the
Kanto Local Finance Bureau.
For the first nine months of fiscal 2009, JAL booked an operating loss of
120.83 billion yen, compared with a loss of 8.86 billion yen in the same period
the previous year, on revenue of 1.14 trillion yen, down 26.6 percent.
Revenue from international flight passengers fell 41 percent from a year
earlier to 336.3 billion yen while revenue from domestic passengers slid 12.5
percent to 455.7 billion yen.
Norikazu Saito, JAL's executive officer in charge of finance and investor
relations, attributed the decline in revenue to price erosion caused by fewer
business class users due to the economic downturn and the spread of the new
influenza.
The company did not provide an earnings outlook for the whole business year
through March because it is still in the process of compiling the restructuring
plan, which is expected to be completed by June.
Meanwhile, Akitoshi Nakamura, JAL's administrator and representative director
of the state-backed corporate turnaround body, indicated the airline may not
need all of the 600 billion yen in the credit line set aside by the state-owned
Development Bank of Japan to aid its rehabilitation process.
''We were able to avoid the worst-case scenario,'' Nakamura said, adding the
bankruptcy filing did not cause serious turmoil or drive away customers as
initially anticipated. So far, the airline has tapped into about 300 billion
yen of the credit line, he added.
ETIC earlier estimated that JAL would book a group operating loss of around
265.1 billion yen by the end of fiscal 2009, but Nakamura said the loss is
likely to be smaller, without providing any specific figure.
He said the state-backed body still expects the airline to return to the black
with an operating profit of 24.1 billion yen by fiscal 2011 through March 2012.
==Kyodo
