Air Arabia's net profit soars despite drop in turnover

Airline flies 14% more passengers in first nine months year on year

Sharjah: Air Arabia's net profit increased by 6 per cent to Dh337 million for the first nine months year on year.

During the first nine months of this year the company's turnover was Dh1.469 billion, some 2 per cent lower than Dh1.495 billion for the same period last year, when the net was Dh318 million.

The airline served more than 2.96 million passengers during the first nine months of the year, an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2.6 million passengers during the same period last year.

Air Arabia's average seat load factor — or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats — for the first nine months of the year stood at a strong 79 per cent.

"At a time when the worldwide airline industry is projected to witness collective annual losses approaching $11 billion [Dh40.37 billion], we are pleased to announce results for the first nine months of this year that continue to exceed expectations, demonstrating our positive performance amidst extremely challenging conditions," said Adel Ali, board member and group chief executive officer of Air Arabia.

"While the challenges that lie ahead, especially in the short term, remain significant, we are convinced that Air Arabia will continue to serve as the preferred value-for-money choice for passengers seeking to travel in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia," Ali said. "We continue to demonstrate strong financial performance, meeting our own internal forecasts and consistently outperforming the market."

Air Arabia's net profit for third quarter was Dh144 million, a decline of 9 per cent compared to Dh158 million for the same period last year.

Passenger traffic in the third quarter was hit by the seasonality of Ramadan, H1N1 worries and global downturn.