Revenues rise for Oman Air



Stronger passenger traffic helped to boost Oman Air's revenues nearly 30 per cent during the first part of this year.

Revenues increased 28 per cent in the first five months of the year, it was revealed yesterday.

The Oman airline had a 19 per cent increase in passenger numbers compared with the same period a year earlier, the company reported. The airline's profits were not announced.

Oman Air's results follow Emirates Airline announcing last month a 72 per cent decline in profits in the last financial year, as a result of soaring fuel costs.

This was despite revenue for Emirates reaching a record level of Dh62.3 billion (US$16.96bn) in the 12 months ending on March 31, an increase of 14.9 per cent over the previous year.

Global profits for the industry are expected to total $3bn this year, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

"A fall in oil prices, stronger than expected growth in passenger traffic and a bottoming out of the freight market are driving some improvements in the profitability outlook," the association said this month.

However, the outlook for Middle East carriers, along with European and Asia-Pacific airlines, was downgraded compared with earlier forecasts issued in March.

Middle East carriers are now expected to post profits of $400 million in total this year, down from the March projection of $500m, Iata said.

"This is a significant drop compared with 2011, when the region's carriers returned a profit of $1bn," Iata said.

"The weakness of European originating traffic will damage long-haul markets, but Middle East airlines continue to lead the industry on growth," it added.

Along with capturing long-haul passenger traffic through the Arabian Gulf hubs, they have been the beneficiary of 80 per cent of the improvement in cargo markets during the past six months.

Overall, capacity for the region's carriers is expected to expand by 13.3 per cent, behind the 14.1 per cent growth in demand.

Oman Air is planning to launch flights from Muscat to Tehran in September.

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