EMIRATES produced a net profit of Dh3.4 billion ($925 million), for the first six months of its current financial year ending September 30, 2010. This represents a 351.2 per cent increase compared to Dh752 million ($205 million), for the same period in 2009.
“The results for the first half of the 2010-11 financial year are incredibly robust and reflect Emirates’ success in growing customer demand, supported by investment in new aircraft, products and customer service. We continue to invest our profits in growing the business and our healthy financial position enables us to successfully meet all of our financial commitments and raise financing for future aircraft deliveries. With 62 new state-of-the-art aircraft ordered in the first half, we remain well positioned to capitalise on this growth,” said HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
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The airline has seen a marked increase in passenger traffic, carrying 15.5 million passengers and recording a seat factor of 81.2 per cent, the highest ever for a first six month reporting period. Premium class seat factors have also risen by 2.6 percentage points.
Emirates’ revenue, including other operating income, of Dh26.4 billion ($7.2 billion) for the half-year represented a strong growth of 35.5 per cent compared to 2009.
Emirates has launched six new destinations since April 2010 – Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid and Dakar for passenger operations in addition to Almaty and Bagram for freight-only. Existing markets have also been given a boost with increased frequencies and capacity - through larger aircraft.
Building on its current A380 network Emirates launched two new A380 destinations, Manchester and Beijing.
Six new wide-body aircraft, five Airbus A380s and one Boeing 777 were delivered in the first half of the year and a new dedicated lounge was opened at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. A further two new aircraft are scheduled to be delivered before the end of the financial year (March 31, 2011).
The carrier has also secured more than 60 open or highly-liberal aviation agreements, following further recent liberalisation success in Latin America, Africa and Europe.