Juneyao airlines in the black

Juneyao Airlines said its profit for the first eight months was US$2.40 million (RMB18 million), the Shanghai Oriental Morning Post reported. The Shanghai-based carrier, which is owned by the Juneyao Group, expects its full-year profit to reach just US$2.66 million (RMB20 million) after it pays for more planes and launches new routes, group chairman Wang Junjin said. Juneyao Airlines launched its maiden flight in September last year and now runs five Airbus 320 aircraft between Shanghai and 19 Chinese cities, including Wenzhou, Tianjin, Kunming, Guilin, Changsha, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Sanya, Qingdao, and Chengdu. It plans to launch flights to Haikou this year and to Asian destinations next year, aiming to operate 30 routes by 2010. Wang said Juneyao Airlines will go public in early 2009, probably on an overseas stock market. He also applauded the aviation authority’s suspension of new route applications, saying it would help push forward public listings by squeezing out potential rivals. Juneyao Airlines flew 650,000 passengers and carried 6,000 tons of cargo in the first eight months.