ANA profit soars on sale of hotels

All Nippon Airways’ net profit for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30 soared to US$734.5 million from $64.5 million the previous year due to large proceeds from the sale of its hotels in Japan.

ANA made a profit $1.11 billion from the sale of 13 hotels to Morgan Stanley.

The sale is in line with ANA's strategy of focusing on its core passenger and cargo flight operations, as it looks to strengthen its competitiveness ahead of the expansion of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, slated for 2010.

But ANA's mainline operations still felt the effects of higher jet fuel costs.

Its group revenue in the quarter rose a modest 1.3 percent to $2.93 billion from $2.90 billion a year ago, due to continued upbeat demand for business travel to the US and other destinations. But its group operating profit fell 32 percent to $111.13 million from $164.18 million a year earlier, weighed down by higher fuel costs.

ANA said revenue from its domestic passenger services gained 1.4 percent while from its international passenger it rose 17 percent.