(Yicai) July 9 -- Shares of Shanghai International Airport rose after the operator of Shanghai’s two international airports said it expects its net profit to have soared up to over six-fold in the first half of the year.

Shanghai Airport [SHA: 600009] closed 4.1 percent up at CNY33.80 (USD4.65) in Shanghai today.

Net profit likely jumped 436 percent to 557 percent to between CNY710 million and CNY870 million (USD97.6 million and USD119.6 million) in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the Shanghai-based company announced yesterday.

Shanghai Airport joined hands with domestic and international airports and airlines to further develop, striving to resume international flights and open new routes, the firm noted, adding that it also continued to enrich commercial operations at the two airports it operates, which led to their aviation and non-aviation business revenues to increase.

Traffic at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport has accelerated its recovery since the beginning of the year. The airports ranked second and seventh by passenger throughput in China, respectively.

According to recent data from Shanghai Airport, the combined passenger throughput of the two airports reached 50.2 million in the first five months of the year, up 49 percent from a year earlier and equaling the same level in 2019.

Pudong Airport and Hongqiao Airport are expected to achieve a total passenger throughput of 22.2 million during the summer holiday season from July 1 to Aug. 31, up 16 percent from a year earlier, according to a recently released forecast by Shanghai Airport. Pudong Airport is likely to handle 13.9 passengers, and Hongqiao Airport 8.3 million.

During the summer season, Shanghai Airport will add new international routes to Manchester and Marseille, resume those to Barcelona and Kagoshima, and increase the frequency of routes to Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Seoul, and Sydney.

Editor: Futura Costaglione