Air Arabia, the Middle East's biggest budget carrier, aims to expand routes and boost annual profit by over 14.7 percent in 2008, bucking a global downtrend, but high fuel costs remain a challenge.
"Our target is to do better than 14.7 percent in 2008," Chief Executive Adel Ali said after the firm announced net profit in the three months to June 30 rose to 82 million dirhams (USD$22.32 million), compared with 71.7 million dirhams a year ago, an increase of 14.4 percent.
"Continued soaring oil prices will remain a pressure on the bottom line, but we hope oil prices will stabilize," he said.
Airlines across the world have been hard hit by oil prices that have risen more than six-fold since 2002, with some of the biggest carriers posting steep falls in profits or even losses.
But Gulf Arab carriers have mitigated surging oil prices as they benefit from a regional economic boom and increased passenger traffic in the world's biggest oil-exporting region.
The Sharjah-based airline will add Kiev as a new destination and increase the frequency of its flights to Mumbai, Amman and Alexandria as it receives more aircraft, Ali said.
The company will receive one new plane in October and will continue to add aircraft so that by the end of 2009, it will have a fleet of 20 aircraft, Ali said. It currently operates 15 aircraft.
Air Arabia carried 866,272 passengers in the three months to June 30, up 34.1 percent from a year ago, and introduced four new destinations in the first six months of the year.
Turnover in the second quarter climbed to 487 million dirhams compared with 272 million dirhams for the same period last year, it said.
Oil prices averaged USD$123.80 in the second quarter this year, compared with USD$65.02 in the corresponding period last year.
Source: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1217849240.html