HAINAN Airlines Co, a Chinese carrier partly owned by American billionaire George Soros, said first-quarter profit more than tripled from a year earlier.

The result was buoyed by higher fuel surcharges, Bloomberg News reported.

Net income rose to 51.2 million yuan (US$6.6 million), or 0.014 yuan a share, from a restated 15.4 million yuan, or 0.021 yuan, a year earlier, the company said on Saturday in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, citing domestic accounting standards. Sales rose to 3.4 billion yuan from a restated 2.9 billion yuan.

Hainan Airlines and other Chinese carriers have gained from increasing surcharges, which raise profitability. The government has cut jet fuel prices three times in 2007, while keeping ticket surcharges at a level twice as high as a year earlier.

Hainan Airlines, China's fourth-largest carrier, may sell more than five billion yuan in stock in Hong Kong this year to pay for new planes from both Airbus SAS and Boeing Co, Chairman Chen Feng said on March 7.

The company said earlier it will merge with Xinhua Airlines Co, Changan Airlines Co and Shanxi Airlines Co to form Grand China Air, and list the new venture overseas.

Hainan Airlines shares rose 1.7 percent to 7.68 yuan in Shanghai on Friday before the earnings announcement.