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The 2024 Fortune Global 500 was released today, continuing the trend of the past few years. Aviation manufacturing companies are still ranked ahead of air transport companies, reflecting the performance differences among different divisions of labor in the aviation industry chain.

Among them, China Aviation Industry Corporation ranked 147th with a revenue of US$86.25 billion, ranking at the forefront of the aviation manufacturing industry; followed by Boeing and Airbus, which ranked 159th and 183rd respectively in the Fortune Global 500.

The most profitable of the three aviation manufacturing companies is Airbus, with profits reaching US$4.096 billion in 2023. The profit of China Aviation Industry Corporation is less than half of Airbus, only US$1.644 billion, while Boeing has a loss of US$2.222 billion.

Among air transport companies, Delta Air Lines of the United States ranked highest in terms of revenue, reaching US$58.05 billion, followed by two other US airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines.

Two European airlines, Lufthansa Group and Air France-KLM Group, ranked after the three major US airlines. Among them, Air France-KLM Group was shortlisted for the Fortune Global 500 again after 2020. Also shortlisted for the Fortune Global 500 again after 2019 was the Middle Eastern "luxury airline" Emirates Airlines Group. Its ranking has surpassed Air France-KLM Group and ranked after Lufthansa Group. Its profit is also higher than Lufthansa Group, reaching US$4.692 billion.

In contrast, China's three state-owned airlines, Air China (601111.SH), China Eastern Airlines (600115.SH) and China Southern Airlines (600029.SH), are still not among the Fortune Global 500 and have not yet turned a profit in 2023.

2023 was the first year that China relaxed its epidemic policy. The three major state-owned airlines still suffered losses of more than 10 billion yuan that year, while major European and American airlines had already achieved positive profits.

For example, among the three major airlines in the United States, Delta Air Lines' profit reached US$4.609 billion, a year-on-year increase of 249.7%. United Airlines and American Airlines' net profits also reached US$2.618 billion and US$822 million, respectively.

Among the three major airlines in Europe, Lufthansa's net profit in 2023 was 1.673 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 112%. The net profits of Air France-KLM Group and British Airways' parent company International Airlines Group also reached 934 million euros and 2.655 billion euros respectively.

Compared with the three state-owned shipping companies, China's largest shipping group, China Ocean Shipping Group, was shortlisted for this year's Fortune Global 500. Although its ranking has dropped compared to last year, it still ranks ahead of the international shipping giant Maersk Group. However, COSCO Shipping's profit (US$3.584 billion) is not as good as Maersk Group's US$3.822 billion.

In terms of railway transportation, the German Federal Railways and the French National Railway Group were shortlisted in the world's top 500. The Chinese railway-related companies shortlisted are mainly manufacturing companies, including China Railway Engineering Group, China Railway Construction Corporation and China Communications Construction Group Co., Ltd., and they are all ranked in the top 100. Most of these railway-related companies have made profits, and only the German Federal Railways lost $2.566 billion in 2023.