On May 7, 2021, Japan Airlines published its financial results for the fiscal year of 2020, reporting a large net loss amid decreased demand in international air travel due to the ongoing pandemic.
In the fiscal year of 2020, Japan Airlines posted a net loss of 287 billion yen ($2.6 billion), a sharp decline compared to a net profit of 48,075 million yen ($440,187) in the fiscal year of 2019.
Due to an “extremely tough year”, Japan Airlines continued to implement cost reduction measures and investment reduction to reduce the negative effect of decreased revenues. As a result, the fixed cost reduction reached to about 135 billion yen ($1.2 billion).
During the fiscal year of 2020, Japan Airlines suspended recruitment and sent more than 1,000 employees per day for enhanced training and other activities “to capture growth beyond the COVID-19”.
“We will work altogether to endure this hardship and will fulfill its mission as a public transportation provider to enable our valued passengers to use our service with comfort. We will prepare for a coming demand recovery in the future through those measures,” read the statement.
However, while talking about the industry’s recovery, Japan Airlines marked that there was “no indication of passenger demand recovery yet due to restrictions on international travel, strengthened quarantine or discouragement of long-distance travel”.