China Southern Airlines

If we're looking at the Asia-Pacific earnings, you know, China is really quite the outlier.

And I would say that at least for the three biggest carriers, the big three, as I like to call them, The ones that were tracking Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, they really are sort of the worst performing Asia Pacific carriers for the most recent earnings season.

And, you know, as you said earlier, it was really quite difficult for them to turn profitable coming out of the pandemic.

And we know that China was really one of the last few major markets to fully reopen and recover from the pandemic.

And if we look at their earnings, China Eastern and China Southern, they swung to operating losses for the six months ending 30 of June.

So last year, the first half of last year, they were profitable, which was quite a rare, I suppose, quite a rare occasion.

And then, of course, now this current half year, they're back in the red.

China Eastern was saying that, you know, the operating environment was, quote, severely undermined by the conflict in Iran, which, you know, not just set fuel prices on record highs, but also disrupted several of their operations.

Spokesperson Mao Ning says China stands ready to work with India to follow the strategic guidance of the two leaders, strengthen communication, expand cooperation and properly handle differences.

China Southern Airlines says it is resuming regular passenger flights between Guangzhou and New Delhi starting September 21.

It marks the restart of the airline's Indian service after a six-year pause.

After arriving in Guangzhou from the Indian capital, passengers will be able to access other destinations, including Melbourne, Tokyo and Shanghai.

Part two, Jay, we are crossing the Pacific and talking China, uh, looking at some of the financials that have come out of China's big three.

And for anyone that's new to the podcast or just needs a little bit of a, a sharpening up on China, we're th- talking around the big three, Air China, China Southern, and China Eastern.

Is that right?

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

And, uh, Air China in Beijing, China Eastern in Shanghai, China Southern in Guangzhou.

So all three just right...

If you go down the eastern coast of China, you'll more or less hit those three cities, and, uh, those are where those three airlines are based.

OK, so that's the catch.

Because if you were doing, say, James, cast your mind back to when we were doing a commercial shoot for China Southern Airlines and we were photographing.

the airplane in the middle of the night, but trying to make it look like it was in the middle of the day.

Oh, yeah.

It is not a good time to be one of the big three Chinese airlines.

China Eastern, China Southern, and Air China all lost money.

China eastern and China southern moved from profit to loss in the first half of the year, and Air China's losses got worse.

It really all comes down to the fact that fuel is incredibly expensive now.

Yeah, expensive for everyone.

Several Chinese airlines introduced free cancellation and change policies for Japan-bound tickets.

In January, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines extended those free cancellation and change arrangements for Japan routes through October 24.

The extensions indicated that the diplomatic dispute between Beijing and Tokyo had not eased.

The tensions escalated further in August after the Japanese government released its 2026 Defense White Paper on August 5.