A rebound in passenger and cargo revenues helped bring Garuda Indonesia to report an operating profit of $82 million for the first half of the year.

The profit is a major turnaround from the $108 million operating loss posted over the six months to the end of June in the previous year.

Total revenue rose 9.7% to $2.19 billion, driven by a 25% rise in passenger yield across the group, while cargo yield jumped 39%. Both appeared to be driven by lower volumes, as cargo tonnage and the number of passengers carried fell 21% and 19%, respectively.

CASK, meanwhile increased 6.3% despite total expenses declining 1.9% to $2.1 billion.

The airline's attributable net profit came in at $24.1 million, driven by an unrealised gain of $48.5 million on hedging transactions that offset foreign currency losses.

Cash and cash equivalents at 30 June amounted to nearly $322 million, up from $251 million at the start of the year. That was boosted by a $310 million net cash contribution from its operations, but offset by higher repayments on short term loans.

The first half figure implies that during the April-June period, Garuda's operating profit came in at $62.3 million, total revenue at $1.1 billion, and net profit was $28 million.

Source: Cirium Dashboard