All Nippon Airways Co. shrugged off higher jet fuel prices, reporting Monday that sales and operating and net profit all hit record highs in the first quarter of 2006.
ANA's consolidated operating profit in the April-June quarter jumped 66.1 percent to 19.5 billion yen on a 10.5 percent rise in sales to 345.2 billion yen. Japan's No. 2 airline attributed the strong performance to brisk demand for both domestic and international flights.
Net profit in the quarter more than tripled from a year earlier to 7.68 billion yen, thanks mainly to the absence of one-time losses stemming from the sale of fixed assets the previous year.
Although ANA spent 9.5 billion yen more for jet fuel during the three-month period than a year ago, it was able to hold the overall rise in operating costs to 8 percent.
ANA said it carried 1.09 million international passengers in April to June, up 16.2 percent, led by strong demand for business travel to Europe and the United States. Demand for flights to China also recovered.
Passenger traffic on ANA's domestic flights rose 2.3 percent to 11.1 million.