China Eastern Airlines Corp., the nation's third largest carrier by market value, said first-half profit jumped 30 percent on rising domestic travel and a stronger yuan.

Net income rose to 2.28 billion yuan from 1.76 billion yuan a year earlier, the Shanghai-based carrier said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange today, using international accounting standards. That compares with the 2.1 billion yuan median of three analyst estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

China Eastern boosted passenger numbers 10 percent in the period as it added more planes to support demand stoked by the nation's economic growth. The carrier, along with rivals China Southern Airlines Co. and Air China Ltd. also benefited from the Chinese currency's about 5 percent gain in the year ended June, which pared the value of dollar-denominated debts built up from buying aircraft.

The airline flew 33.2 million travelers in the first half, according to its monthly traffic data. Its passenger load factor was 78 percent, compared with 75.8 percent a year earlier.

The airline advanced 3.3 percent to HK$3.72 at the 4:00 p.m. close in Hong Kong trading today, before the earnings announcement. It has lost 5.6 percent this year, compared with a 14 percent decline for the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

The carrier, the largest operator of Shanghai-Beijing flights, may be the biggest beneficiary among the nation's airlines from disruption on China's high-speed railways because its network has the biggest overlap with the train system, Credit Suisse Group AG analysts Ingrid Wei and Sam Lee wrote in an Aug. 15 note.

The government has slowed trains nationwide following a fatal crash last month, while services on the Beijing-Shanghai line have been curtailed following a locomotive recall.