Japan’s ANA expects to record loss of US$5 billion

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TOKYO – Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc. expects to log a record net loss in the region of 530 billion yen (US$5.04 billion) for the business year through next March as the industry has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Xinhua news agency, quoting sources from the airline on Wednesday.

ANA Holdings Inc., the parent company of All Nippon Airways Co., is of the opinion that the carrier’s recovery, especially for international flights, is linked to the pandemic and thus it might take some time until demand recovers, they said.

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The Japanese government’s domestic travel subsidy programme has helped domestic passenger numbers increase from next to nothing since the virus outbreak here, while passengers for international flights in the five months through August tanked 96 per cent from a year earlier, ANA Holdings Inc. said.

This was owing to numerous countries and regions around the world slapping travel bans and restrictions on each other, with Japan itself being no exception, although the government is slowing setting about reestablishing reciprocal flights, predominantly for business people, with countries and regions deemed to have successfully dealt with the pandemic.

All Nippon Airways Co., so far this business year has opted to withhold an earnings guidance due to uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, but will announce next Tuesday its earnings for the first half of the current business year through September, the sources said.

The company will also, the sources said, provide its forecast for its full-year earnings.

ANA posted a net loss of 108.82 billion yen (US$1.03 billion) in the April-June quarter. It will also count a significant part of the debt from subordinated loans from Japanese banks as capital, insiders said, and cut annual wages and bonuses as other means to streamline its operations.

The sources also said that unpopular routes will be suspended and assets deemed unnecessary will be sold.

ANA will also, as part of its wholesale cost-cutting measures, reportedly retire half of its 60 wide-body jets due to a slump in demand.

A wide-body jet is any aircraft wide enough to offer two passenger aisles, such as the aged 747 “jumbo jet” and the more recent Boeing 777 or 777X and Airbus’ easily recognisable A380.

–BERNAMA

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