Jul. 31--TOKYO -- All Nippon Airways Co. said Friday it incurred a group net loss of 29.20 billion yen in the April-June period, against a year-earlier profit of 6.65 billion yen, due to a drop in global flight revenues amid the global recession and the spread of a new strain of influenza.

In a consolidated earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 through next March, the airline also booked an operating loss of 42.42 billion yen, a sharp reversal from a profit of 14.61 billion yen a year earlier, on revenues of 269.90 billion yen, down 21.9 percent.

Revenues from its passenger transportation services in Japan contracted 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 138.6 billion yen as the number of its passengers dropped 13.6 percent to 903,000. Sales for international passenger transportation fell 44.1 percent to 43.8 billion yen as the number of its passengers was down 15.5 percent to 970,000.

But Eiji Kanazawa, ANA's senior vice president for finance and accounting, said at a news conference that the company is upbeat that its earnings will pick up in the latter half of fiscal 2009.

"We face a tough environment but we look toward seeing a recovery in our business in the latter part of the fiscal year as new-flu fears wane and the effect is felt for a 30 billion yen emergency earnings improvement package that will minimize first-quarter losses," Kanazawa said.

As a result, ANA left its earnings outlook unchanged for the current fiscal year, expecting a group net profit of 3 billion yen and an operating profit of 35 billion yen on revenues of 1.35 trillion yen.

Under the emergency plan unveiled Friday, ANA will cut back on expenses, including general procurement costs that will be reduced by 3.5 billion yen this fiscal year.

The plan also includes the airline's restructuring efforts to boost its earnings by scrapping or reducing money-losing flights and increasing flights with stronger demand.

Among the money-losing flights, ANA will cut the number of weekly roundtrip flights between Narita airport near Tokyo and Shanghai by seven to 14 from Oct. 25.

At the same time, the airline will start seven weekly charter flights from Narita to Beijing and increase the number of weekly Narita-Mumbai flights from three to seven.

In Japan, ANA will either reduce or scrap flights in areas including the Kansai region starting in October or November while boosting flights between Nagoya and Okinawa from Nov. 1.

In fiscal 2008, the airline reported a group net loss of 4.26 billion yen, the first consolidated net loss in six years, as the global economic slowdown hit demand for domestic and international air travel.

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