Plus, Korean realised an operating profit over the course of the three months, a significant improvement on the loss made in the quarter last year. Nevertheless, overall net income was still in the red.

Moreover, although the carrier’s freight business accounted for 25.1 percent of total operating revenue, cargo traffic fell by 12.2 percent year-on-year to a little over 2 billion freight tonne-km.

Freight traffic did improve somewhat over the course of the quarter, declining year-on-year by just 6.5 percent in June.

Plus, because available cargo capacity was reduced by 12.4 percent over the quarter, the average load factor also improved marginally, by 0.2 points to 76.3 percent.

Furthermore, the carrier has said that it is optimistic of further improvements, declaring: “Benefiting from the London Olympic Games and seasonal high demand in the third quarter, cargo traffic is expected to recover gradually.”

Looking forward, Korean said that a process of fleet renewal which will see the introduction of more fuel-efficient aircraft will help its bottom line, while the airline will “strive to enhance profitability and sustain growth by developing new markets such as South America and Africa”.