Core Insights - The Civil Aviation Administration of China reported a total profit of 1.2 billion yuan for the aviation industry in 2024, marking a significant improvement of 20.61 billion yuan year-on-year, representing the first overall "loss reduction and profit increase" since the pandemic [1] - Private airlines demonstrated significantly better profitability compared to state-owned carriers, with Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, and China United Airlines achieving net profits of 2.273 billion yuan, 914 million yuan, and 268 million yuan respectively [1] - State-owned airlines, including China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Air China, continued to face losses for the fifth consecutive year, with an average loss reduction from 5 billion USD in 2022 to 286 million USD in 2024 [2] Industry Structure - The profitability of private airlines is attributed to their low-cost operating models, with Spring Airlines exemplifying this approach by maintaining a focus on core metrics such as flight utilization, passenger load factor, and cost control [3] - Private airlines have shown greater flexibility in route selection, prioritizing market demand and profitability, which has allowed them to fill market gaps that state-owned airlines have overlooked [3] - The operational efficiency and decision-making agility of private airlines have enabled them to recover more quickly from the pandemic compared to state-owned counterparts [4] Future Outlook - The aviation market in China is expected to undergo a reshuffling in the coming years as it emerges from the pandemic, with private airlines likely to continue focusing on differentiated and segmented market strategies [4] - State-owned airlines may need to implement deep structural reforms in their organizational, financial, and operational mechanisms to escape the cycle of losses, potentially exploring mixed-ownership trials for non-core routes and subsidiaries [4]