Dubai

Etihad Airways said on Tuesday its revenues increased 29 per cent to $1.8 billion in the third quarter of this year with passenger traffic fed into its network from airlines it partly owns increasing. The Abu Dhabi state-owned airline did not release profit figures.

The airline said it carried 3.9 million passengers between July and September, which was 30 per cent more than the 3 million passengers it carried over the same period last year.

The contribution of its code-share partnerships and from the airlines it partly owns to passenger numbers increased by 41 per cent with an estimated 1.1 million added onto Etihad flights, the airline said.

The code-share and equity partnerships contributed $352 of revenue, representing 27 per cent of the airline’s passenger revenue.

“From the limited figures disclosed, the third quarter was much better than its first half results, although strong performance in the third quarter would be expected with the peak travelling season in many parts of the world,” said Will Horton, senior analyst at CAPA — Centre for Aviation, by email.

He added: “Once again we do not see yield and figures on passengers flown (in terms of kilometres — not headcount), so some discretion is needed.”

In August, Etihad signed a deal to invest €560 million in Alitalia that will see the Abu Dhabi airline take a 49 per cent stake in the Italian carrier. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval and Etihad’s strategy of buying stakes in airlines has been met with objection by some European airlines and authorities.

Etihad said it started services to Yerevan, Perth and Rome services in the third quarter, while frequencies increased on eight existing routes, including to Dublin, Athens and Chennai.

Cargo revenue climbed 16 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter to $284 million in the third quarter of 2014 with Etihad Cargo carrying 144,498 tonnes of freight and mail between July and September, the airline said.

Etihad said it added three aircraft in the third quarter expanding its fleet to 105. Five aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in the last three months of the year.