Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea’s second-largest flag carrier, said Wednesday it swung to a net profit in 2014 as the weak yen and falling oil prices bolstered demand for its flights.
Net profit came to 62.7 billion won ($57.2 million) on a consolidated basis last year, a turnaround from a loss of 114.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The airline reported 98.1 billion won in operating income, a turnaround from a loss of 11.2 billion won a year earlier, while its sales expanded 2 percent to 5.84 trillion won.
For the fourth quarter of last year, the company turned to a net profit of 107.5 billion won from the previous year’s loss of 69.1 billion won.
Shares of Asiana Airlines jumped 8.06 percent to close at 8,850 won. This compared with a 0.51 percent rise in the benchmark KOSPI.
“Encouraged by the weak yen, passengers traveling to Japan, China and Southeast Asian countries steadily grew compared with a year earlier,” the company said.
“Demand for air freight transport also expanded thanks to the recovering U.S. economy and cargo pileups at seaports in western regions,” it added.
Along with the earnings, Asiana Airlines announced it will add new planes to its fleet.
Asiana Airlines said it will purchase 25 Airbus A321-200 NEO jets that have 180 more seats and 20 percent better fuel efficiency than A321 planes. A A321-200 costs $115 million.
The new planes are expected to reduce costs and result in more sales down the road. They will be put in service from 2019 to 2025 in phases and will fly passengers traveling to Japan, China and Southeast Asian countries.
The carrier said that it also plans to introduce six A380 superjumbo jets by 2016 and bring in a total of 30 midsize A350 jets between 2017 and 2025.
Additionally, Asiana Airlines will deploy two A380 and two A320 jets this year. (Yonhap)
