ANA Holdings Inc. said Thursday it posted a net profit of 89.48 billion yen ($669 million) in the year ended March, returning to the black for the first time in three years as Japan's relaxed COVID-19 measures boosted travel demand.

The net profit marked a turnaround from 143.63 billion yen in loss the previous year as sales surged 67.3 percent to 1.71 trillion yen, the parent of All Nippon Airways said.

The company's bottom line improvement was also supported by the booking of a deferred tax asset, it said.

Domestic travel demand continued to recover thanks to the absence of COVID travel restrictions in Japan throughout the fiscal year while Japan's easing of its border control measures from last fall helped boost the number of foreign visitors, it said.

Speaking at a press conference, President Koji Shibata expressed hope that the government plan to downgrade the legal status of the novel coronavirus to a level on par with seasonal influenza on May 8 will further benefit the tourism industry.

"We are expecting a positive impact on both our domestic and international operations" from the COVID reclassification, which will ease preventive measures such as limiting the movements of infected individuals and their close contacts, he said.

Demand for domestic flights was at 93 percent of the pre-pandemic level as of the end of March while that of international flights recovered to 54 percent of the 2019 level, ANA said.

For the current fiscal year ending March next year, the company expects its net profit to fall 10.6 percent to 80 billion yen on sales of 1.97 trillion yen, up 15.4 percent.

The company expects demand for domestic and international flights to average about 95 percent and 70 percent of their pre-pandemic levels, respectively, for the current business year.

==Kyodo

© Kyodo News International, Inc., source Newswire