|
|
Africa: Emirates Records 62 Percent Profit Growth
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Daily (Nairobi)
1 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008
Wangui Maina
Emirates Airline weathered increased fuel prices to record a 62 per cent profit in the last financial year.
The airline recorded a profit of $1.37 billion (Sh86.31 billion), compared to $844 million (Sh53.2 billion) in 2006-07, in an industry that has been recording decreasing profits due to increased operation costs with fuel being the major cost.
Fuel costs still remain the airline's top expenditure, accounting for 30.6 per cent of the total operating cost compared with 29.1 per cent the previous year.
Speaking during the release of Emirates Group's financial report - which includes the airline, Dnata and other subsidiary companies - the CEO , Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, noted the airline's fuel risk management programme had helped the airline save on fuel costs leading to savings of up to $242 million (Sh15.2 billion) in 2007-08. "Despite the challenging business climate the airline has been able to offset the losses by other operating gains," he said.
In the financial year, ending March 31st 2008, the airline introduced seven new routes to various parts of the globe and increased frequencies in some of its major routes like to China and India.
Its hub has enabled the airlines to connect the East and West with ease especially as the travel industry continues to record strong growth in the Middle East.
However the airline's major expansion is faced with the challenge of finding more pilots, engineers, cabin crew and skilled staff to be part of the expansion.
The airline currently has one of the biggest order book of 182 planes by March 2008, excluding options, with aircraft manufacturers.
This is worth $58 billion. In the past financial year, the airline received 11 new Boeing 777s growing its fleet to 114 planes, including 10 freighters.
Emirates Airline's revenues totalled $10.8 billion (Sh680 billion), an increase of 32.3 per cent from $8.1 billion (Sh510 billion) the previous year.
|
Its passenger seat factor increased to 79.8 per cent compared to 76.2 per cent the previous year. In total, the airline carried up to 21.2 million passengers, 3.7 million more than the previous year. Emirates Group recorded a profit increase of 54 per cent.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
