Japan's ANA lifts profit forecast on COVID recovery

TOKYO ANA Holdings Inc., the operator of Japan's largest airline, raised its full-year profit forecast as travel demand recovers after the easing of COVID 19 border curbs.

ANA expects to reach 95 billion yen $739 million in the year through March, a rise from a previous estimate of 65 billion yen. The company reported a profit of 99 billion yen in the nine months through December, compared to a loss of 116 billion yen a year ago, it said.

Japan Airlines Co also returned to profit, with pre-tax earnings of 24.7 billion yen in December from a loss of 188.7 billion yen the year before.

ANA Holdings went back to a half-year profit in September, just before Japan fully opened to tourists, ending some of the world's strictest border measures to contain COVID infections.

Visitors to Japan rose to 1.37 million in December, but were still down 46 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, according to the national tourism agency last month.

Arrivals from mainland China are just a fraction of what they were in 2019 due to Beijing's strict COVID controls that have only recently been eased.

As the infection situation settles down, ANA CFO Kimihiro Nakahori told reporters that they had strong expectations that travel between Japan and China will return to pre-corona levels.