| Kippreport.com

Ready for liftoff

May 8, 2012 8:05 by kippreport

Given the current economic weather, the success of budget airlines should come as no surprise. Air Arabia reported terrific profits this quarter, inspite of the soaring prices of oil. This quarter, the airline generated net profits of Dh47.6 million marking an increase of 11.6 percent from the same period in 2011. At Dh621.9 million, Air Arabia’s revenue rose by 21.1 percent. Of course, it is important to note the positive affect the increase in fares and the fuels costs have had on the airlines. Keeping this in mind, it should be interesting to see whether Air Arabia will find its current revenue sustainable.

In other aviation related news, Etihad Airways, stating concerns over production delays, has reportedly cancelled orders for the new Airbus A350. Back in 2008, the Abu Dhabi based carrier had ordered 25 of the planes. And though the delievry date was set for 2014, last year Airbus announced redesign plans which pushed the roll out a further three years. In January, Etihad cancelled six of the order and a earlier this week, a monthly sales report of Airbus revealed a further cancellation of seven planes. “Although not intrinsically linked, the recent delay to the A350 programme provided an appropriate opportunity for Etihad to revisit its projected fleet mix in the latter part of the decade” said an Etihad spokesman.

This comes, after news Qantas, the Australian carrier will be delaying delivery of two new Airbus A380s, to be delievered in 2017–a good four years after the intended date of delivery. The airline said it was cutting back to help ‘capital spending.’ Earlier this year, China said it was blicking its purchase of 35 A330s and 10 A380s over the pressures of the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme.