Major Japanese carriers All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) on Tuesday reported falling April-June profits as fuel costs weighed despite higher revenues.
Both airlines left their full-year guidances unchanged, bracing for annual profit drops.
ANA said operating profit fell 21.1 per cent from a year earlier to ¥20.1 billion (Dh661 million), while revenue grew 7.3 per cent to ¥484.9bn.
Core revenue from the aviation business increased thanks to robust demand, but profits fell "due to rises in fuel costs on top of investment in measures to increase safety and service quality as well as in human resources", ANA said.
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Net profit tumbled by 68.5 per cent to ¥16.1bn because the previous year's figures included one-off gains from including a low-cost carrier as a consolidated subsidiary.
For the current year to March 2019, ANA maintained its forecasts, saying the April-June results were in line with expectations.
It expects net profit to slip 29 per cent to ¥102bn, snapping three years of record profits, while projecting revenue will grow 3 per cent to ¥2 trillion.
Rival JAL meanwhile said its quarterly operating profit rose a marginal 0.7 per cent to ¥24.9bn with net profit dropping 10.3 per cent to ¥17.5bn.
It also saw higher operating expenses eat into profits, with fuel costs jumping 20 per cent as oil prices rose.
Revenue rose 8.7 per cent to ¥342.1bn.
JAL forecasts full-year net profit will fall nearly 19 per cent to ¥110bn for the current year, despite a five percent increase in revenue to ¥1.46tn.
