China Southern Airlines turns a profit for the first time in 6 years, with Xiamen Airlines becoming its most profitable passenger subsidiary.

On March 30, China Southern Airlines (600029.SH) released its 2025 performance announcement. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 182.256 billion, up 4.61% year over year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 0.857 billion; the same period last year recorded a loss of RMB 1.696 billion, turning from loss to profit on a year-over-year basis. Basic earnings per share were RMB 0.05. The company will not distribute profits or transfer capital reserve funds to increase share capital for 2025. This profit distribution proposal is subject to approval at the company’s 2025 annual general meeting of shareholders.

This is also the first time Southern Airlines has recorded annual profit since 2020.

During the reporting period, Southern Airlines’ total freight turnover was 39,056 million ton-kilometers, up 7.87% from the same period last year. Passenger transport volume was 173.73 million passenger trips, up 5.46% year over year. Load factor was 85.74%, up 1.36 percentage points year over year. Aircraft utilization was 9.79 flight-hours per day, up 0.17 hours compared with the same period last year.

Profitability showed clear seasonality. In the third quarter, it delivered single-quarter profit of RMB 3.84 billion. In the other quarters, net losses were RMB 0.747 billion, RMB 0.786 billion, and RMB 1.450 billion for the first, second, and fourth quarters, respectively.

During the reporting period, Southern Airlines’ passenger transportation revenue was RMB 153,644 million, accounting for 87.12% of the Group’s main business revenue, up 4.91% year over year. Passenger turnover was 331,306 million passenger-kilometers, up 8.28% from the same period last year. Revenue per passenger-kilometer was RMB 0.46, down 4.17% year over year.

XiamenAir’s net profit was RMB 0.779 billion, making it the most profitable passenger-carrying subsidiary within Southern Airlines. Southern Airlines Logistics’ net profit was RMB 3.575 billion, becoming a core source of profits for the Southern Airlines Group.

In addition, the profits of the company’s maintenance-related businesses remained stable. Zhuhai Motianyu had a net profit of RMB 1.530 billion, and Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering had a net profit of RMB 0.221 billion. The aviation companies in which the company holds equity stakes posted large losses, including Sichuan Airlines, whose net loss was RMB 1.643 billion, with Southern Airlines holding 39%.

The announcement said the company is firmly implementing its hub-and-spoke network strategy, building an airline network with Guangzhou and Beijing as the cores, strategic focus markets as the key, and an “all-network, fully connected” route network. The Guangzhou hub benchmarks world-class standards, concentrates resources to strengthen connections and transfers, treats Southeast Asia as an important hinterland market, actively develops the sixth traffic rights, expands international routes such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and continuously improves the competitiveness of hub transfers. The Beijing hub implements “connections + point-to-point,” focusing on markets such as Japan and South Korea, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

Previously, Air China and China Eastern had already released their 2025 annual performance reports. Air China’s full-year 2025 revenue was RMB 171.485 billion, up 2.87%; its net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of RMB 1.770 billion, with the loss magnitude further expanding by RMB 0.237 billion compared with 2024. China Eastern’s full-year 2025 revenue was RMB 139.941 billion, up 5.92%; its net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of RMB 1.633 billion, but the loss narrowed significantly by 61.36% compared with the RMB 4.226 billion loss in 2024.

The losses of Air China and China Eastern are related to accounting treatment and the performance of their subsidiaries. In Air China’s case, losses from subsidiaries such as Shenzhen Airlines and Shandong Airlines weighed down overall performance. From the operational substance, Air China’s non-GAAP net profit loss was RMB 2.485 billion, and China Eastern’s non-GAAP net profit loss was RMB 2.949 billion, both improving significantly compared with the previous year, with a clear trend of business recovery.

In addition, according to an earnings forecast released by Hainan Airlines, in 2025 it is expected to have a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 1.8–2.2 billion, compared with a loss of RMB 0.921 billion in 2024, also achieving a turnaround on a year-over-year basis. Driven by the growth of international routes and the Hainan Free Trade Port policy, regional travel demand increased, jointly leading to a substantial improvement in its performance.