High-speed trains impacting China airline earnings

China's three major State-owned airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, all pointed out the impact from high-speed trains in their latest half-year earnings reports, and only China Eastern achieved positive growth in net profits.

In the first half year, China Eastern saw its net profits jump 34.46 percent over the previous period. Air China and China Southern saw their net profits fell by 3.79 percent and 11.62 percent, respectively, according to their earnings reports.

For sales revenues, however, all three major airlines achieved positive growth. China Eastern, China Southern and Air China netted sales revenues of 48.02 billion yuan ($7.17 billion), 60.32 billion yuan and 58.16 billion yuan, respectively, up 3.64 percent, 11.54 percent and 8.65 percent year-on-year. In addition, the passenger load factor of all three major airlines stood above 80 percent in the period.