The first airline annual report is released: Air China reports a loss of nearly 1.8 billion yuan.

On the evening of March 26, China National Aviation (601111) was the first listed airline group to release its first annual report for 2025. In 2025, China National Aviation recorded operating revenue of 171.485 billion yuan, up 2.87% year over year. Its net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 1.77 billion yuan, with the loss widening on a year-over-year basis. Since 2020, China National Aviation has been loss-making for six consecutive years, for a total cumulative loss of 72.723 billion yuan.

Regarding the reasons for the widened loss in 2025, China National Aviation explained that it was mainly due to the fact that, in accordance with corporate accounting standards, on the balance sheet date the company reviewed the carrying value of deferred tax assets. This resulted in the reversal of part of the deferred tax assets formed from previously deductible losses, which increased income tax expense, thereby leading to a loss in net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company. From an operational perspective, the company’s performance is still continuously improving, showing the characteristics of increased investment, increased revenue, and cost reduction.

The performance of its subsidiaries and equity-accounted investees shows a clear pattern of divergence. The annual report shows that Cathay Pacific’s profit attributable to shareholders reached 8.748 billion yuan, becoming an important support for Air China’s performance. Other subsidiaries such as Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines Group, and Macau Airlines are mostly still in a loss position.

From operational data, in 2025 China National Aviation cumulatively投入 367.641 billion seat-kilometers, up 3.24%; the number of transported passengers exceeded 160 million passenger trips, up 3.40%.

Earlier, profit forecasts released by other major listed airline companies showed that in 2025 the performance of airlines exhibited significant divergence. China Southern Airlines expects its 2025 net profit attributable to shareholders to be between 0.8 billion yuan and 1.0 billion yuan, and its non-recurring profit (loss) net profit to be between 0.13 billion yuan and 0.19 billion yuan, achieving a turnaround from losses to profits. Hainan Holdings expects to realize net profit attributable to shareholders of between 1.8 billion yuan and 2.2 billion yuan, and non-recurring profit net profit of between 0.9 billion yuan and 1.1 billion yuan, turning losses into profits on a year-over-year basis. China Eastern Airlines expects 2025 net profit attributable to shareholders to be a loss of between 1.3 billion yuan and 1.8 billion yuan, and its non-recurring profit net profit to be a loss of between 2.7 billion yuan and 3.3 billion yuan.

In 2025, the civil aviation industry as a whole maintained a strong momentum of steady growth. According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in 2025 the entire industry completed total passenger and cargo turnover of 164.08 billion ton-kilometers, passenger transport volume of 770 million passenger trips, and cargo and mail transport volume of 10.172 million tons, increasing year over year by 10.5%, 5.5%, and 13.3%, respectively. Among them, international flights have recovered to more than 90% of the 2019 level, and international passenger transport volume increased by 21.6% year over year. According to the Civil Aviation Administration’s forecast, in 2026 China’s civil aviation will coordinate both domestic and international markets, actively serve the strategy of expanding domestic demand in an all-around way and opening up to the outside world at a high level, and is expected to complete total transportation turnover of 175 billion ton-kilometers, passenger transport volume of 810 million passenger trips, and cargo and mail transport volume of 10.7 million tons.

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