Emirates Profits up 140%
 

From the UAE "Gulf News"(12/11):

"Emirates has earned a profit of Dh404.2 million in the first half of this year, a 140 per cent jump compared to last year. The airline's cash balance for the six months to September 30 also rose to Dh3.9 billion from Dh2.8 billion in 2001.

Despite an 18 per cent increase in seat capacity, Emirates raised the load factor to 78 per cent from 74 per cent. Cargo revenues also grew 38 per cent.

Emirates bucked the downturn in the industry by posting an operating revenue of Dh4.3 billion, up 27 per cent from Dh3.4 billion in 2001, the unaudited results show.

"We are very pleased to annou-nce this substantially increased half-yearly profit during a challenging time for the aviation industry," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation and chairman of Emirates Group.

"We are pleased that the surge in passenger and cargo traffic has been spread equally across the entire network."

He added that the airline was committed to its plans to increase its fleet to 100 aircraft by 2010 from 44 at present.

Emirates is improving passenger comfort by buying new Airbus A330 and Boeing 777-300 aircraft and opening a First and Business Class check-in lounge at Dubai International Airport. It has also started five passenger and two cargo flights to new destinations.

The airline, the fastest growing in the Middle East, said it was "cautiously optimistic" for the rest of its financial year, based on strong forward bookings.

Dermot Mannion, chief director for finance, said Emirates was considering another bond issue to raise money following last year's Dh750 million issue, which it doubled to Dh1.5 billion after it was heavily oversubscribed.

"There is an appetite in the Gulf and abroad for a second bond issue," he added."



Are these real figures, or is their a "state subsidy" hidden there somewhere?

How could they be "subsidised" by the state?

They are OWNED by the state!

...and add further destinations
 

from Khaleej Times(13/11):

"EMIRATES airline has announced plans to add four new destinations to its ever-growing network in the next year and increase frequencies to 17 existing destinations.

In total, the four new routes and the increased flights will amount to an increase in total capacity of 26 per cent. They will also provide travellers from the Middle East region with greater choice and flexibility. At the same time, they will enhance Dubai's position as a premier transit point to destinations around the globe.

Emirates, one of the world's fastest-growing international carriers, will launch new services to Kochi (Cochin) on December 2, 2002 (subject to government approval). Kochi will be followed by Lagos (subject to government approval) on March 31, Moscow on July 1 and Shanghai on August 2, 2003. Airbus 330-200 jets, offering a three-class service, will be operated on all four routes.

Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Group and president of Dubai Civil Aviation Department said: "The introduction of these new routes, coupled with our intention to launch services to the US next year, will secure Emirates a place as a truly global carrier.

"Our plans for growth are further underlined by our $15 billion aircraft order book, which includes 22 of the new double-deck Airbus A380s, which will be the world's largest aircraft when they enter service from 2006." Flights to Manchester, Bangkok, Munich and Muscat will be increased to two per day, while those to Sydney become daily.

Across the network, existing flights will be increased as follows:

Europe: Manchester - Daily to two daily service (June 1); Munich -12 flights weekly to two daily (March 30); Malta/Tripoli - Three flights weekly to four flights a week (May 1);Paris - Seven flights weekly to 11 flights per week (July 1 subject to government approval); Istanbul - Four flights weekly to five flights per week (July 1). Pacific Rim/Australia: Sydney - Four flights weekly to daily service (March 30); Bangkok - 10 flights weekly to double daily (March 30); Hong Kong - 10 flights weekly to 13 flights per week (May 1).

Subcontinent/Africa: Karachi 14 flights per week to 21 flights per week (July 1); Khartoum - Three flights weekly to five flights per week (May 1).

Middle East: Teheran -10 flights weekly to 14 flights per week (May 1); Jeddah - Five flights weekly to six flights per week (March 30); Doha -17 flights weekly to thrice daily (March 30); Dammam - Four flights weekly to five flights per week (March 30); Muscat - Daily to double daily service (July 1); Sanaa - Three flights weekly to five flights per week (July 1)."

Like it or lump it, the bottom line is that EK have the cost base under control!

A top whack United Captain costs the company $330,000 plus pension et al. Top whack EK Captain gets his salary tax free plus a house and including the provident fund still only costs the company around about $200,000.

A BA cleaner costs $8/hour, a cleaner in DXB cost around $200/month. It isn't down to subsidies it is down to paying folks what the airline can afford.

The best line I have seen recently was from a US airline analyst. He said: 'United have made cuts to drive their costs close to the American cost base model. Sadly the American model is doomed to failure as well!'

In the US, the guys at the top are taking all the cash and letting those at the bottom get furloughed when times get tough. Even Air Inc's bumf tells pilots to expect to be furloughed at least once in their career. Every time a downturn hits the companies restructure and screw the employees. Everytime the industry booms, the unions screw the companies. I wonder why things keep going wrong.

9/11 was a catalyst but more than a year later most of the European airlines are starting to get back on track and the Far Eastern market is turning up nicely. The US airlines are now running out of excuses.

Sorry, the truth hurts as the Yanks say, 'Wake up and smell the coffee!'

Ghost

A BA cleaner costs $8/hour, a cleaner in DXB cost around $200/month

Not exactly a fair comparison ??? You should try comparing the cleaners salary with his country of origin, which certainly wont be the UK. :)

Mutt

Mutt my friend you miss the point. I know a mate from say Bangladesh earning $200/month in Dubai is well off in his terms.

The point is that most of, say, BA's flights either originate from or go to places with high labour costs. In Dubai, labour is cheap and more than half of EK's flights originate from there so even on a seemingly trivial item like aircraft cleaning they save money.

It would be interesting to look at the labour costs of the employees at say BA against the costs incurred by EK. EK's cost of ownership of their cabin crew is much lower at the outset than most other airlines. The crew tend to stay for shorter periods of time and as we all know junior crew are cheaper than their more experienced breatheren. Not that I want to buy one .....

Ghost

slightly offtopic,
 

Congrats to emirates for beating the global trend again and on their way to becoming a real major player in the whole of Asia.As to the reasons for their strong performance, I strongly agree with ghost's views but in any industry , labor costs directly affects a company's bottom line.
As for mutt's theory
"Not exactly a fair comparison ??? You should try comparing the cleaners salary with his country of origin, which certainly wont be the UK." ,
I beg to disagree here ...it's not the country of origin that pay should be based on but the cost of living in Dubai that should be the deciding factor.What if Emirates were to hire a bangladeshi pilot, would they turn around to him and say, hey 2000$ is a lot of money from where you come so that's what we're gonna offer you, I think that would be grossly unfair and thank god, it doesn't happen that way.
In short, a cleaner's pay ,whether british,australian,american,bangladeshi should be the same at emirates and hopefully it increases from $200,if that is the correct figure...


:p