Thanks to the global economic recovery which spurred demand for both international passenger travel and cargo traffic, the airline posted an operating revenue of 2,836.4 billion KRW in the second quarter of 2010, a year-on-year increase of 36.7%, the highest second-quarter revenue in Korean Air's history. International passenger and cargo businesses remained the major revenue contributors for the airline, accounting for 47% and 36% of the operating revenue respectively. Operating profit of the airline returned to the black from a loss of 127.3 billion KRW in the second quarter of 2009 to a surplus of 352.1 billion KRW during the reporting period. Profit margin was 12.4%, a significant year-on-year improvement and another historic record.
For the six months ending June 30, 2010, the airline recorded an operating revenue of 5,435.4 billion KRW, up 25.3% year-on-year, while operating profit reached 572.3 billion KRW, up from a loss of 120.7 billion KRW comparing with the first half of 2009.
Cargo
Attributable to the increasing exports of IT products (such as LCDs, semi-conductors and cell phones), cargo traffic reached 2,503 million FTK, up 26.2% year-on-year, the highest quarterly growth record for Korean Air. Cargo traffic to Europe more than doubled, and cargo traffic to the Americas and Japan nearly doubled during the reporting period.' Revenue generated from this segment posted a year-on-year increase of 86.4% to 1,020.2 billion KRW.
