Etihad Airways has recorded a 200 per cent leap in profit to US$42 million during 2012 on the back of a healthy revenue increase of 17 per cent. The result is up from US$14 million in 2011, its inaugural year of profit.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and rentals rose 16 per cent to US$753 million. The result was helped by a five per cent reduction in non-fuel costs.
Etihad said some 19 per cent of its profit was derived from equity it holds in partner airlines, including Virgin Australia (nine per cent), Air Seychelles (40 per cent), airberlin (29.21 per cent) and Aer Lingus (2.98 per cent). Etihad said equity and codeshare partners delivered 1.2 million passengers to the airline during 2012.
In other performance measures, Etihad carried more than 10 million passengers in a year for the first time and recorded an average seat factor of 78.2 per cent. In a further positive development, the airline’s revenue passenger kilometres grew ahead of available passenger kilometres, rising per cent to 48 billion.
Breaking global trends, Etihad’s airfreight uplift showed strong growth of 19 per cent.
Etihad took delivery of six aircraft during the year.
CEO James Hogan said it had been “a game-changing year for Etihad”.
“We have taken great strides in building the industry’s first ‘equity alliance’, with our investments in airberlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia and Aer Lingus, which are contributing significant value to our business,” he added.
“And we have met our mandate of contributing to the economic development of Abu Dhabi, growing its aviation sector and building trade and tourism connections across the globe.”
Etihad will take delivery of 14 aircraft in 2013 to meet growth requirements.
