Korean Air Lines Co. said Tuesday it swung to a net loss in 2018 from a year earlier due to hefty foreign-exchange losses.

    The South Korean flag carrier posted a net loss of 167.59 billion won (US$150 million), after a net profit of 801.9 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. 

    As the US dollar rose to 1,118.1 won at the end of 2018 from 1,071.4 won at the end-2017, foreign-exchange translation losses reached 363.6 billion won and it cut into the annual earnings results, the statement said.

    Moreover, the won's weakness drove up jet fuel and net interest costs last year. Fuel costs jumped 26 percent to 3.294 trillion won from 2.616 trillion won. And net interest costs rose 14 percent to 454.8 billion won from 399.3 billion won, it said. 

    Operating profit fell 28 percent to 676.33 billion won last year from 939.78 billion won a year ago. Sales climbed 7.7 percent to 13.024 trillion won from 12.092 trillion won during the same period.

    In 2019, Korean Air aims to achieve an operating profit of 1 trillion won on sales of 13.23 trillion won, the company said. (Yonhap)