Emirates airlines profit up 43% in 2013 to $887 mn

DUBAI: Emirates airlines, the largest Middle East carrier, said it posted a 43 percent surge in profit to $887 million last year as fuel costs dropped and passenger numbers rose.
Net profit in 2013 hit AED3.3 billion ($887 million) compared to AED2.3 billion ($622 million) the previous year, the company announced.
Fuel costs dropped by around four percent, Emirates chief Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said, while passenger numbers increased 13 percent.
The carrier’s revenues increased 13 percent to AED82.6 billion ($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 percent 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.