Asiana Airlines, South Korea’s second-largest carrier, said Thursday it posted a net loss of 46.6 billion won ($45.3 million) in the first quarter, mainly due to a drop in passenger traffic from Japan.

Operating profit also stood in minus territory at 2.1 billion won, with sales dipping 0.4 percent to 1.41 trillion won from 1.42 trillion won tallied a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

“Frayed relations and the weak yen caused a noticeable drop in inbound passenger traffic from Japan, which hurt the bottom line,” a corporate source said. He said this was a problem because the South Korea-Japan route is important for the company.

In the first quarter of 2013, the route to Japan accounted for 16 percent of passenger traffic, yet this dropped to 12.8 percent from January through March. Inbound traffic from Japan was down 14.2 percent on-year, the airline said.

The company said that despite both net and operating profits remaining in the red, the extent of the loss was not as bad as the first three months of last year.

At that time, net losses hit 48.2 billion won, with the numbers for operating losses hitting 21.1 billion won.

The company said the better numbers reflected a rise in passenger demand from China and Southeast Asia, and an increase in air cargo volume, thanks to more exports of UHD TVs, high-end automotive parts and mobile phones.

For 2014, the company said it will bring in new planes such as the Airbus A380 “Super Jumbos” and A330 planes that will bolster its competitiveness and strengthen flight services to North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Asiana’s first A380 will arrive in South Korea in late May. (Yonhap)