Air Arabia third quarter net profit rises 26%

14/11/2016 05:48 AST

Air Arabia, the UAE’s only publicly-listed airline, reported a 26 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit on Sunday.

The Sharjah-based firm made a net profit of Dh297 million ($80.9 million) in the three months to September 30, the company said in a statement. This compares with a profit of Dh235 million in the corresponding period of 2015.

EFG Hermes and SICO Bahrain had forecast the airline would make a third-quarter profit of Dh294.5 million and Dh209.4 million respectively.

Air Arabia, which had reported declining profits in four of the preceding five quarters, carried more than 2.27 million passengers in the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 14 per cent year on year.

The airline’s third-quarter revenue was Dh1.12 billion, “in line” with the revenue generated in the same period a year earlier, it said without elaborating.

Shaikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani, Chairman of Air Arabia said: “The strong third quarter and year to date performance is a reflection of Air Arabia’s commercial and operational strengths supported by the company’s commitment to deliver high value air travel to its customers and return on investments to its shareholders”.

He said that despite challenging trading conditions driven by excess capacity in the market, political instability in some markets and the effect of lower oil price in the regional economies, “we remain confident about the long-term prospects for the low cost industry in region and our ability to continue with our growth plans while delivering our value-for-money promise to our customer’s everyday.”

Gulfnews