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Low oil price, new routes boost Emirates Airline's profit by 56 pct

Xinhua, May 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Emirates Airline's net profit surged by 56 percent to 7.1 billion dirham (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the last fiscal year, the group's chairman said on Tuesday.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Group, attributed the gains to low oil prices and newly added routes in the last fiscal year 2015/2016 which ended on March 31.

The entire group posted its highest net profit of 8.2 billion dirham, up 50 percent year on year, the chairman told Tuesday's annual media conference.

He said the airline and global civil aviation are facing "new challenges as lower oil price and stronger U.S. dollar" in the last fiscal year.

Nevertheless, the world's fastest growing airline witnessed ample demand as it added 29 new planes to a total of 351 aircraft by the end of March 2016, which now has 77 A380 planes in service and a pending delivery of another 65.

Meanwhile, Emirates Airline also launched eight new passenger destinations, including Mashhad in Iran and Orlando in the United States.

The chairman explained that the low oil prices helped the airline to save nine billion dirham of jet fuel costs.

However, the slump impacted the demand for business and first class tickets, especially in the oil exporting Arab countries.

Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said the company is considering future options for class configuration, "a premium economy class could be possible."

The airline has launched new flights to China's Yinchuan and Zhengzhou, four times a week for both, and upgraded its flight to Chinese Taipei by bringing in the double decker A380 aircraft, capable of taking up to 615 passengers.

It will also launch new flights from Dubai to Hanoi, capital of Vietnam and Yangon, capital of Myanmar. Endit