ANA Holdings Inc. on Wednesday lifted its net profit forecast for the year ending March to 130 billion yen ($880 million) from an earlier projection of 80 billion yen, helped by a post-COVID recovery in air travel demand.

The new estimate represents a 45.3 percent rise from a year earlier, in a major reversal from the previous figure that had forecast a 10.6 percent decrease, the Japanese airline said.

Its annual sales are now projected at 2.03 trillion yen, compared to an earlier estimate of 1.97 trillion yen.

For the nine months ended December, net profit increased 2.4-fold to 148.95 billion yen on sales of 1.54 trillion yen, up 22.6 percent.

Sales at its international flight business rose 89.9 percent from a year earlier to 551.5 billion yen for the period, as the number of foreign tourists to Japan increased.

The domestic flight business also grew on strong leisure travel demand, with sales rising 26.6 percent to 496.5 billion yen, ANA said.

==Kyodo

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