Emirates' half-year performance hits new record

Emirates Airline has announced yet another record performance with net profit for the first six months of the current financial year 2006-2007 at Dhs 1.2 billion (US$ 323 million), up 29 per cent compared to Dhs 922 million (US$ 251 million) recorded in the corresponding period last year.

The results reflect a strong revenue performance driven by robust passenger and cargo demand, and better yields, which softened the impact of high fuel prices on operating costs.

Emirates' operating revenue of Dhs 13.5 billion (US$ 3.67 billion) for the half-year represented a strong growth of 30 per cent compared to revenue of Dhs 104 billion (US$ 2.84 billion) during the corresponding period last year.

Passenger revenue recorded a 31 per cent growth, with passengers carried increasing by 1.41 million or 20 per cent 8.39 million, compared to 6.98 million for the first half-year of 2005-06 the seat factor improved to 76.4 per cent for the period, reflecting the robust demand in tandem with an increased passenger seat capacity (in terms of available seat kilometres) of 25 per cent, versus the same period last year.

Emirates SkyCargo continued its steady revenue growth, posting an increase of 29 per cent to Dhs 2.7 billion, with cargo tonnage up by 20 per cent to 577,455 tonnes, compared with 482,643 tonnes for the same period last year, and maintained its contribution at about 21 per cent of the airline's transport revenue.

Emirates' Chairman and Chief Executive, Sheikh Ahmed on Saeed Al Maktoum, said: "Emirates has delivered another excellent half-year performance, maintaining capacity and revenue growth despite the challenges faced by high fuel costs.