DAE reports 186% growth in profit in the first six months

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd has reported an increase of 186 per cent in its profit for the first six months of this year, reaching $140.1 million.

According to the company’s financial results, cash flows from operating activities increased by 36 per cent to $678.5 million.

The company reported available liquidity of $2.7 billion, saying that its new capital commitments for aircraft purchases was $750 million.

DAE said that it signed a new aircraft management mandate to acquire and manage up to $1.75 billion of aircraft assets.

Firoz Tarapore, chief executive officer of DAE, said: “Our financial results are reflective of the strength of DAE’s franchise despite emerging macroeconomic headwinds. Air travel demand continues to be strong and all leading indicators continue to point to a strong summer season for our airline customers.”

Leased planes

Major airplane lessor DAE said on Thursday it didn’t know if it would ever get back 19 jets leased in Russia after Moscow passed a law allowing for hundreds of jets to be seized in response to Western sanctions.

The Dubai state-owned lessor reiterated that it had written off $576.5 million for the planes and filed insurance claims to recover amounts due. It had previously said it had filed insurance claims of $1 billion, while noting the amount could increase.

Sanctions imposed by Western countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced lessors to terminate contracts with Russian airlines. Moscow retaliated by barring leased jets from being repossessed, though some airlines have since returned some aircraft.

Dubai Aerospace said it had terminated contracts on 22 aircraft leased to Russian airlines in compliance with sanctions and that it had no control over 19 jets that were currently in Russia.

“The group is unable to determine whether these aircraft will be returned at any point in the future,” it said in its half-year report.

It was not immediately clear what type of aircraft were in Russia.

In March Dubai Aerospace said that aircraft leased in Russia accounted for seven per cent of its leased aircraft fleet by net book value. — Wam, Russia