Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's top air carrier, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit shrank slightly, as foreign exchange gains offset a drop in operating profit.

The carrier said its consolidated foreign exchange gain stood at 596.8 billion won ($563 million) for the July-September period, compared with 208.5 billion won from a year earlier, due to the Korean won's strength against the U.S. dollar.

Korean Air's debts stood at 13.8 trillion won as of Sept. 30. Among them, debts denominated in the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen accounted for 59.4 percent, or $7.63 billion, and 8.6 percent, or 107.7 billion yen, respectively, according to the carrier.

The won gained 3.3 percent against the U.S. dollar in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Consolidated net profit came in at 341.5 billion won in the three months through Sept. 30, down 1 percent from a 344.9 billion won profit a year earlier, the Seoul-based carrier said in a regulatory filing.

The airline said it posted an operating profit of 160 billion won, down 43 percent from a year earlier, while sales also dipped 3 percent on-year to 3.1 trillion won.

(Yonhap News)