Etihad Airways 2015 profit jumps 41% on passenger growth

Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Etihad Airways, which has become a major competitor to the biggest global airlines on European and Asian routes, posted a 41 per cent leap in net profit for 2015 on the back of strong passenger growth, the airline said on Wednesday.

Etihad, which owns stakes in Alitalia and AirBerlin, made a net profit of $103m in 2015 compared with $73m in the previous year, it said in a statement.

Revenue climbed to $9.02bn from $7.55bn. The airline carried 17.6 million passengers in 2015, up 19 per cent.

“Our profitability clearly demonstrates the success of our business strategy, based on organic growth boosted by our partnerships,” president and chief executive James Hogan said.

Revenue passenger kilometres, which measure passenger journeys, rose 21.3 per cent to 83.2 billion while available seat kilometres, which represent capacity, grew 21 per cent to 104.8 billion.

Etihad, which has 50 codeshare agreements and equity in seven airlines, earned $1.4bn in direct revenue through this partnership strategy versus $1.1bn in the previous year. The airline’s cargo volume rose 4 per cent to 591,000 tonnes in 2015.