Chinese airlines reported higher earnings in the first three quarters of this year compared with the same period last year thanks to a stronger yuan and decrease in fuel expenses, the Shanghai Securities News said today.

Airlines and airports earned a combined profit of 13.7 billion yuan in the period, said China's General Administration of Civil Aviation of China on its Website yesterday.

The average load factor between January and September was 76 percent.

Hainan Airlines Co, China's fourth-biggest carrier, said profit probably rose more than 90 percent in the first nine months of the year in its statement to Shanghai's stock exchange today.

Hainan's net income was 213 million yuan (US$28 million) in the first nine months of 2006, it said. The airline is scheduled to report earnings on October 31.

China Southern Airlines Co, the country's biggest carrier by fleet size, said yesterday its third-quarter profit rose 49 percent to 1.88 billion yuan.

The carrier, which flies about a third of air passengers in China, plans to expand its fleet 22 percent this year, adding 68 planes to the 309 it had at the end of 2006.

The airline also announced an order for 10 Airbus SAS A330-200s late yesterday. These planes, alongside 20 A320s and 80 Boeing Co 737s that are awaiting delivery, will raise the carrier's capacity 43 percent, it said.

Air China, the nation's largest carrier, and China Eastern, the third-biggest, are due to report earnings early next week.

China's airlines are expected to handle 185 million passengers this year, 16 percent more than a year earlier, according to the administration.

(Shanghai Daily October 25, 2007)