China Southern Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, on Sunday reported a 95.3 percent decline in its first-half net profit despite increased passenger traffic.

In the first six months of the year, the carrier handled 31 million passengers, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, but it failed to repeat a 2.64 billion yuan (US$386.53 million) of foreign-exchange gains of last year as the value of yuan kept little changed in the period.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2009)