Dubai: Emirates airlines, the largest Middle East carrier, said Thursday it posted a 43 per cent surge in profit to $887 million last year as fuel costs dropped and passenger numbers rose. Net profit in 2013 hit 3.3 billion dirhams ($887 million) compared to 2.3 billion dirhams ($622 million) the previous year, the company announced.
Fuel costs dropped by around four percent, Emirates chief Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum told reporters, while passenger numbers increased 13 per cent. The carrier's revenues increased 13 percent to 82.6 billion dirhams ($22.5 billion). "It has been a good year," sheikh Ahmed said. The government-owned carrier transported a record 44.5 million passengers last year, compared to 39.4 million the previous year. Emirates Group as a whole, which includes Dnata travel services, saw revenues rise 13.2 percent to 87.8 billion dirhams ($23.9 billion), with profit surging 31.6 percent to 4.1 billion ($1.1 billion).
The group will give a dividend of one billion dirhams ($280 million) to its indebted government "similar to the last financial year," it said. Emirates market in East Asia and Australasia remained its highest revenue contributor, with $6.5 billion, 14 per cent up from last year. The Dubai-based airline leads Gulf major carriers in expanding their share on the route between the West and Asia and Australasia, triggering repeated complaints from legacy carriers which complain over a tough competition with the state-owned airlines.
Emirates fleet also increased to 217 planes from 197 in 2012-2013. It is the largest single operator of Airbus' superjumbo A380, and Boeing's 777 long-haul airliner.
