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Spring Airlines most profitable Mainland airline in first half 2025
September 4th 2025
Spring Airlines has booked a net profit of CNY1.2 billion (US$164.7 million) in interim 2025, the best performance of all Mainland carriers in the six months to June 30, despite a profit decline at the carrier of 14% year-on-year. Read More » Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines reported a 3.3% profit compared with the same months last year, at CNY505 million, and China Express Airlines increased its net profit by eight times to CNY251 million compared with a year ago. Hainan Airlines returned to the black delivering an interim 2025 profit of CNY57 million. Yicai Global said Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and other private aviation enterprises had been less affected by adverse market conditions than state-owned Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines because they operate short haul destinations including to Japan and South Korea. Additionally, Spring Airlines only operates a small wide-body fleet, giving it more flexibility and speed in reallocating capacity to profit trending routes. All Mainland carriers recorded a fall-off in domestic revenue. For example, Spring Airlines, despite its profit performance, reported relevant passenger-kilometer income had declined 4.8% this year. Cost control has become critical to sustaining performance, with private carriers holding an edge over government controlled airlines, Yicai said.
