Dubai's Emirates airline posts record full-year profit

DUBAI’S Emirates airline on Monday (May 13) reported full-year profit up more than 60 per cent at 17.23 billion dirhams (S$6.35 billion), comfortably beating the previous year’s 10.6 billion dirhams.

The airline carried 51.9 million passengers in the year to March 31, with seat capacity up 21.4 per cent.

“The business outlook is positive, with projections of strong, sustained demand for international air transport and travel,” chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement.

“As always, we will keep a close watch on costs and external factors such as oil prices, currency fluctuations and volatile environments.”

The state-owned airline will pay its staff a bonus equivalent to 20 weeks’ salary, according to an internal staff email seen by Reuters.

Parent Emirates Group also reported record annual profit, up 71 per cent at 18.7 billion dirhams, and said it would pay its owner, Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund, a dividend of 4 billion dirhams. REUTERS