Korean Air today reported operating revenue of 2.8 billion KRW in the second quarter of 2011, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 per cent.

In the quarter ended June 30th, international passenger and cargo businesses remained the major revenue contributors for the airline, accounting for 52.3 per cent and 31.8 per cent of the operating revenue respectively.

With high oil prices and slow Korean outbound cargo traffic, an operating loss of 37.5 billion KRW was recorded during the reporting period.

Passenger

With the global economy picking up, passenger traffic continues on a steadily upward trend, said Korean Air.

During the reporting period, total passenger traffic recorded a year-on-year increase of two per cent, with Korean inbound and transit traffic up seven per cent compared to the same period last year.

Second quarter of 2011, international passenger traffic reported a 6.4 per cent growth to 14,748 million RPK, with increased traffic from routes in the Southeast Asian regions, China and the Americas as the main driver of growth.

Korean Air has introduced its first Airbus A380 and has put more new aircraft into service since the second quarter of this year.

Cargo

Owing to the decreasing exports of IT products (such as display monitors and mobile phones), cargo traffic recorded a year-on-year fall of 8.4 per cent to 2,292 million FTK.

Despite the fall in the traffic of such products, exports of auto-related parts and semi-conductors saw growth during the reporting period.