2Q review: Asiana Airlines reported that its sales and operating profit grew 8.5% and48.7% y-y, respectively, to KRW1.5t and KRW42.8b in 2Q, beating consensus and ourprojections. Despite the airline’s revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) on China routesplunging 39.5% y-y due to Chinese restrictions on travel to Korea, overall RPK rose2.7% y-y thanks to robust demand on non-China routes—RPK rose 28.3% y-y on Europeroutes, 11.7% on Japan routes, and 4.2% on Southeast Asia routes). Nevertheless, Asiana’swon-denominated yield fell 2.2% y-y, and its load factor (LF) declined 2.6%pts, leavinginternational passenger sales flat y-y. Yet we view this as a solid performance given thefirm’s heavy sales exposure to China routes (21% of passenger sales in 2016). Meanwhile,the cargo division likely saw volume grow and yield improve for a third straight quarter.    Sales at the division grew 23% y-y as revenue freight tonne kilometers (FTK), wondenominatedyield, and load factor rose a respective 11.4%, 11.1%, and 5.7%pts y-y in 2Q.    The carrier’s operating costs likely climbed 8% y-y as average jet fuel prices rose 15% y-yand maintenance costs increased 25% y-y (as more aircraft were subject to maintenance).    Maintaining target price and HOLD rating: Reflecting stronger-than-expected2Q earnings, we raise our 2017 operating profit forecast by 10%. And although thepassenger division should enjoy a strong peak season and cargo demand should remainsolid amid a global economic recovery, we maintain our HOLD rating and target price ofKRW6,000 (based on a 2017 target P/B multiple of 1.2x, a 20% discount to the globalpeer average of 1.51x), noting that: 1) demand on high-margin China routes has continuedto decline due to the THAAD conflict; 2) investors should monitor competition withKorean Air, which is seeking to enhance its competitiveness on long-haul routes via codesharing expansion; and 3) group-related risk has yet to dissipate.

声明：如本站内容不慎侵犯了您的权益，请联系邮箱：wangshiyuan@epins.cn 我们将迅速删除。