UAE national carrier Etihad Airways has registered its third consecutive year of net profit which soared to $62 million, up 48% when compared to the previous year.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier on Thursday said its revenue increased by 27% to $6.1 billion when compared to 4.8 billion the year before helped by a surge in passenger numbers.
Etihad flew 11.5 million passengers in 2013, up 12% compared to 10.3 million the previous year.
The revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) – measuring passenger journeys - increased by 16% to 55.5 billion (47.7 billion), while Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs) – representing capacity - grew by 17% to 71.1 billion (61 billion), stated the Etihad in its statement.
The record performance also saw earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) up 22% to $208 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and rentals (ebitdar) up 30% to $979 million, a margin of 16% of total revenues.
This marked the third successive year of net profitability, in the airline’s tenth year of operation.
Commenting on its performance, President and CEO James Hogan said:”It is another important step forward in our journey as a growing, commercially successful business. We have hit every financial target for each of the last seven years, bringing sustainable profitability to a business which has grown from just $300 million in revenues in 2005 to over $6 billion today.”
“We have delivered that through our unique strategy, which has seen us combine industry-leading organic growth with wide-ranging partnerships and minority equity investments in strategically important carriers around the world,” stated Hogan.