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| Sunday, 11 May 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Emirates Group flies high The Emirates Group has declared a 74 per cent increase in net profits to US$ 285.7 million (Dhs 1.05 billion) in the financial year 2002/03 ended March 31, 2003. Emirates Airlines operations achieved a 94 per cent increase in profits, from US$ 127.6 million to US$ 247.1 million. The average passenger seat factor rose to 76.6 per cent, breaking all previous records. Cargo represented 19.6 of the airline's revenue. Total Group revenue increased by 31 per cent to US$ 2.8 billion in the financial year, compared with US$ 2.1 billion in the previous year. Dnata returned a net income of US$ 38.6 million, up from US$ 36.7 million last year. The cash balance for the Group stood at US$ 1.3 billion at the year end, compared to US$ 0.9 billion at the end of the previous year. The report and accounts of the Emirates Group, comprising Emirates Airlines and Dnata, were disclosed by Emirates' Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, at a media conference at its Dubai hub. In his review in the report, Sheikh Ahmed said: "The growth of Emirates goes hand in hand with the growth of Dubai. The Group is actively promoting its home base as the 21st century's most exciting city for commerce and tourism, with a difference". He added that the Emirates Group contributes significantly to Dubai's Gross Domestic Product. "In the financial year under review, our contribution to the Dubai economy was US$ 1.1 billion in direct expenditure, plus a conservative estimate of an additional US$ 1.65 billion in related expenditure by third parties - a total of US$ 2.75 billion," he added. Last year was a difficult one for the aviation industry which suffered global losses of US$ 13 billion. Emirates, like other international airlines, had to face global economic and political problems, but its fast reaction to these challenges across the network helped minimise their effects on operations. Sheikh Ahmed underlined the fact that Emirates does not receive any subsidies from the Dubai government nor any protection from competition. Emirates Airline The airline carried 8.5 million passengers, an increase of 26 per cent over last year's 6.8 million. It is 20th in size among international airlines and one of the five most profitable. Capacity rose 28.5 per cent in available tonne kilometres, while the passenger seat factor - despite the increased capacity - rose 2.3 percentage points, up from 74.3 per cent the previous year. The overall load factor was 70 per cent, up from 68.3 per cent the previous year. Tonnage shipped by Emirates SkyCargo was up 31.1 per cent to a record 525,188 tonnes. During the 2002/03 financial year, services were launched to Casablanca, Khartoum, Mauritius, Perth, Osaka and Cochin, bringing the number of destinations to 64 in 45 countries. Frequencies were increased at a number of destinations, including London, Johannesburg and Tehran. Emirates' destination and leisure management division, which includes wholesale tour-operating combining Emirates Holidays, the Dubai destination management company Arabian Adventures and the Al Maha Desert Resort, registered a 22 per cent growth in capacity, with over 208,000 clients and particularly strong outbound sales. Dnata Maurice Flanagan, Emirates' Group Managing Director, said: "Dnata Airport Operations, during its 44th year, took care of 16.5 million passengers and 924,000 tonnes of cargo at the Dubai International Airport." The division turned around nearly 70,000 aircraft during the year in addition to handling increased traffic from Terminals One and Two. The main terminal saw a 11 per cent growth in volume which exceeded the worldwide industry average of five per cent. The Freezone Logistics Cargo Terminal was doubled in size to 19,000 sqm to help meet an expected 173 per cent growth in business. Dnata Agencies remains the largest travel agency in the Middle East and probably the biggest retail travel outfit in the world with 29 airline sales offices under one roof. The year saw the division register an eight per cent increase in overall revenue. |
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