Shandong Airlines Co has revised its expected net profit for the first half of this year to RMB 50-60 million, from earlier estimates of RMB 10-20 million.

The carrier had earlier reported a net profit of RMB 51.67 million (US$7.39 million) for the first quarter of this year, compared with a loss of RMB 58.79 million in the same period of last year, but had estimated profit of only RMB 10-12 million for the first half.

The company is expected to declare audited first half results on Aug. 26.

SDA is an airline based in Jinan, Shandong province, China. It is a provincial carrier operating mainly domestic trunk routes and some secondary routes from Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai to major cities in China.

The airline started operations in September 1994. In September 1997 it jointly founded the Xinxing (New Star) Aviation Alliance along with five of China's provincial airlines. It is owned by Air China and has a 10% stake in Sichuan Airlines.