EMIRATES announced a net profit of Dh3.4 billion ($925 million), in the first six months of its current financial year ending September 30, 2010.
This represents an outstanding 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 Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
Highlighting a positive shift in the aviation sector, Emirates airline has seen a marked increase in passenger traffic, carrying 15.5 million passengers and recording a strong passenger seat factor at 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, reflecting an encouraging change in the global economic outlook.
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Sheikh Ahmed: encouraging year ahead |
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 revenue of Dh19.5 billion ($5.3 billion) during the same period last year.
Fuelling growth in the aviation and tourism industry globally, Emirates added six new destinations since April 2010 – Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid, Dakar (passenger operations) in addition to Almaty and Bagram (freighter only operations). 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 and additional daily A380 service to Jeddah.
Emirates continued to invest heavily in its product with the delivery of six new wide-body aircraft, five Airbus A380s and one Boeing 777 and the opening of a new dedicated lounge 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 airline also secured over 60 open or highly liberal aviation agreements, following further recent liberalisation success in Latin America, Africa and Europe. The 60th and 61st agreements, with Brazil and Panama, are the latest negotiations in 2010 that allow carriers of each partner country to offer largely open services between each market. It follows eight other open deals successfully concluded during the course of 2010.