Air China flies higher as it looks to 'new era' of Chinese communism

Air China issued its annual results for the 2017 calendar year on Wednesday, with revenue rising 7.71% to CNY 124.03bn (£13.93bn) year-on-year.

The majority-state-owned airline, which has shares listed in Hong Kong and London, said air traffic revenue totalled CNY 115.38bn, representing a 7.53% improvement, while other operating revenue rose 10.19% to CNY 8.65bn.

Its profit after tax was CNY 8.64bn, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.38%.

The Air China board recommended the payment of a cash dividend of CNY 1.1497, including tax, for every ten shares for the 2017 year.

That would total around CNY 1.67bn based on the current total issued shares of 14,524,815,185.

“We devoted great energy to streamline and strengthen our management, and to improve the quality and efficiency of our services,” said the Air China board in its statement.

“We focused on the optimisation of the operation of wide-body aircraft to improve our cost management system, strengthen cost process management and improve our performance.

“We actively carried out the policy of ‘lower leverage, reduce liability and control risk’.”

As a result, as at 31 December, the board said the gearing ratio of the group decreased by 6.15 percentage points to 59.75%, which it said was at a “relatively superior level” in the industry.

Air China also promoted “special projects” such as ‘increase direct sales and reduce distribution costs’, ‘reduce trade receivables and inventories’ and ‘streamline management structure’, the board highlighted.

“Since 2014, the percentage of the group's passenger transport direct sales has increased from 26% to 50.9%, and the percentage of agency commission expense of the marketing revenue has decreased from 4.2% to 1.5%.

“Therefore, our cost competitiveness was continuously improved.”

The Air China board also noted that 2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening of China, and also the first year to implement the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

“The group will fully implement the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress.

“Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhering to the development principles of ‘Innovation, Coordination, Green, Openness and Sharing’, we will focus on the reform on quality, efficiency and growth driver, carry out our work in a down-to-earth manner, prevent and mitigate risks and strengthen party building, and will take a solid step towards the strategic goal of building a world-class aviation group by achieving further spectacular performance in safety, results, service and reform.”