Two of the nation's major airlines watched their unconsolidated earnings travel in opposite directions during the first half of fiscal 1999, with industry leader Japan Airlines Co.'s falling and Japan Air System Co.'s increasing, reports released Friday showed.
JAL reported an unconsolidated pretax profit of 18.7 billion yen for the April-September period, down 36.1 percent from the same period last year. Company officials blamed the steep appreciation of the yen and reduced income from aircraft-related businesses.
JAL's net profit during the period shrank 65.2 percent from the same period last year to 6.4 billion yen, while sales fell 2.6 percent from the previous year to 599 billion yen.