Air Arabia H1 net profit soars 39pc to Dh160m

SHARJAH - Air Arabia, largest low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa, announced on Sunday Dh160 million net profit for the first half of this year against Dh115 million, indicating an increase of 39 per cent over last year.

The airline’s net profit for the second quarter of this year reached Dh 82 million, up 14 per cent compared to Dh 71.7 million for the second quarter of 2007. During the first half of 2008, the company registered a turnover of Dh871 million, up 70 per cent from Dh513 million for the first half of 2007.

Air Arabia’s turnover for the second quarter of this year reached Dh487 million, up 79 per cent compared to AED 272 million for the second quarter of 2007. The airline served more than 1.6 million passengers during the first half of 2008, a 33 per cent increase compared to 1.2 million passengers during the same period last year.

Air Arabia served some 866,272 passengers in the second quarter of this year, up 34 per cent compared to 646,000 passengers in the second quarter of 2007.

For the first six months of this year, Air Arabia’s average seat load factor — or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats — stood at an extremely impressive 86 per cent, up 3.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.

“During a period of unprecedented challenges for the global aviation industry as a result of the continuously soaring oil price, we are extremely proud of these results, which demonstrate Air Arabia’s ability to continue to deliver sustained growth and excellent returns to our investors.

We believe that Air Arabia enjoys the proper model and infrastructure needed to remain amongst the most profitable airlines in the world” said Shaikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, Chairman, Air Arabia. “Focusing on organic expansion and operational reliability, Air Arabia will remain committed to providing comfort, convenience and value-formoney service to our passengers, and continually upgrading our destination network to serve the widest number of cities in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central Asia,” he added.

Air Arabia recently announced that it has carried more than 10 million passengers since launch in October 2003, officially passing the mark at the end of June 2008. The Sharjah-based carrier also introduced four new destinations in the first six months of this year, including Kozhikode and New Delhi, India; Shiraz, Iran; and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This increases Air Arabia’s total network to 41 destinations across the wider region.