Korean Air up nearly 5% by record quarterly profit on reopening

Korean Air Lines Co. shares rose the most in a week in Seoul trading after the country’s biggest full-service carrier reported its largest quarterly operating profit in the third quarter, helped by a recovery in travel demand amid border reopening with eased Covid restrictions and strong cargo demand.

The company on Thursday reported an operating profit of 839.2 billion won ($588 million) on a separated basis in the three months to September, 91.3 percent higher than the same period a year ago and 14.0 percent higher from the previous quarter. Sales jumped 64.7 percent on year and 10.1 percent on quarter to 1.44 trillion won.

Korean Air shares gained 2.6 percent to 23,400 won after rising as much as 5 percent on Friday morning.

Global carriers have seen a revival in travel demand this year as easing Covid concerns have prompted many countries to reopen their borders to visitors and remove entry restrictions. This helped Korean Air post a 338 percent jump in sales in its passenger operations in the third quarter and filled 80.1 percent of seats on its flights in the third quarter.

Sales from its cargo operations rose 13 percent in the third quarter despite concerns that a slowing global economic growth could undermine trade. Korean Air saw higher demand for semiconductors originating from overseas, prompting the carrier to operate chartered flights.

In the fourth quarter, Korean Air expects passenger operations to continue to grow, while cargo business is expected to affected by the slowing global economy.

By Kyunghee Park