Air China sees 14% rise in 2014 net profit

Air China, the country's flag carrier, said Thursday that the global economic recovery and falling oil prices helped lift its net profit by 14 percent last year.
Net profit in 2014 came in 3.78 billion yuan ($608.67 million), up from 3.32 billion yuan the previous year, the airline said in a statement filed late Thursday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It credited falling oil prices, recovery in the global economy, and strengthened cost management, as well as recovery in the air cargo market as some of the factors behind the rise.
The result follows a 32 percent drop in profit in 2013, caused by a struggling world economy and a weak cargo market.
"Profitability of our core business continued to strengthen and the quality of our earnings improved markedly," the airline said.
Air China said it had carried 83.01 million passengers in 2014, an increase of 7 percent over the previous year.
"We timely increased the capacity for our Japanese and Korean routes where passenger growth was faster, optimised our Australian route structure, and dynamically adjusted our capacity deployment in Southeast Asian routes," the company said.
Air China bought 60 Boeing 737 aircraft in December last year with a list price of about $6 billion to expand its fleet. The airline will be taking delivery of the planes from 2016 to 2020.
Looking ahead to 2015, the airline said China's moderate growth was expected to "increase of consumption level of Chinese consumers and the change of their consumption structure will provide a new dimension and a new strategic opportunity for the development of China’s aviation industry."