China’s largest budget carrier Spring Airlines registered a 44% gain in first-quarter profit as lower fuel prices and growth in Asian travel demand propelled earnings.
Net income climbed to 366.7 million yuan ($57 million) from 254.3 million yuan a year earlier, the Shanghai-based private carrier said Thursday in an exchange filing. For the full year, net income rose 50 percent to 1.3 billion yuan in 2015, including a foreign-exchange loss of 79.1 million yuan, according to a separate company statement.
Crude oil prices fell more than 30 percent last year, helping lower fuel costs for carriers and boosting their earnings. Still, profit growth was tempered by foreign-exchange losses resulting from the yuan’s biggest decline since 1994, with the nation’s three biggest state-owned airlines recording a combined $2.5 billion loss from the Chinese government’s surprise currency devaluation last year.
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