ANA quarterly profit down 15 percent

All Nippon Airways Co. said quarterly profit fell 15 percent as record oil prices swelled its fuel bill and demand for travel slackened amid the global economic crisis, forcing the airline to cut full year forecasts.

Japan's second-largest airline, known as ANA, said Friday that net profit for the July-September quarter of the fiscal year ending March, 2009 was 15.3 billion yen ($156.12 million) compared with 18 billion yen in the same period last year.

Revenue at Tokyo-based ANA slipped 1.4 percent to 407.8 billion yen ($4.16 million) during the second quarter.

"Beyond the price of oil, which hit historic highs and set our fuel bill soaring for most of the period under review, we are faced at home with softening overall demand and increased competition from other airlines and the railways," ANA Executive Vice President Tomohiro Hidema said in a statement.

The number of passengers on domestic flights fell 3.3 percent to 22.28 million during the April-September period because of spiking jet fuel prices and falling demand. The number of passengers on international flights edged down 3.7 percent to 23.35 million during the fiscal half, with fewer vacationers flying on European and North American routes during the summer.

ANA lowered its forecast for the full fiscal year as "we anticipate demand for our air transportation business to trend downward in the near future."

The airline slashed its net profit forecast for the full fiscal year to 17 billion yen ($173.47 million) from 27 billion yen. ANA also trimmed its sales projection to 1.46 trillion yen ($14.90 billion) from 1.51 trillion yen.

ANA said net profit for the April-September first half plunged 79 percent to 22.0 billion yen ($224.49 million) from 105.5 billion yen a year earlier. Midterm revenue fell 1.3 percent to 753.3 billion yen ($7.69 billion).

The International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 airlines, forecasts the global airline industry to make a loss of $5.2 billion this year.

ANA's earnings results are based on Japanese accounting standards.

ANA shares fell 1.2 percent to 373 yen Friday in Tokyo. The company announced earnings shortly after trading ended.

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