Emirates Doubles Profits To $463M

Manila Bulletin
November 15, 2012, Thursday

DUBAI (Reuters)- Emirates airline, Dubai's flagship carrier, reported that its profits doubled in the first half of its fiscal year as fuel costs eased and it carried more passengers.

The government-owned airline said net profit was 1.7 billion dirhams ($462.8 million) in the six months to Sept. 30, up from 836 million dirhams in the prior-year period. Its financial year ends on March 31.

The airline carried 18.7 million passengers since April 1, up 15.4 percent from a year ago.

"Emirates remained focused on its growth and global expansion despite ongoing fluctuating exchange rates and ever lingering high fuel prices which accounted for 39 percent of our expenditures, down 2 percentage points from last year," Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoem, the airline's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Revenue, including operating income, was 35.4 billion dirhams, up 17 percent on the same period last year.

Emirates, along with other statebacked Gulf carriers Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, have forged ahead with expansion even as Western airlines cut costs and shelve growth plans to combat high fuel costs and a global market slowdown.

Emirates is betting that its location- a third of the world's population is within a four-hour flight radius- will continue to attract passenger traffic away from other global hubs such as London, New York and Singapore.