The aggressively expanding carrier has found financing for all of its aircraft purchases up until March of 2010, which includes deliveries of eight Airbus A380s and 14 Boeing 777s next year. In spite of the current fi nancial crisis, Emirates has found financing for all of its aircraft purchases until March of 2010.
Emirates saw its profit plunge by 88 per cent to just 284 million dirhams (US$77 million) in the first half of the year mainly because of the massive increase in fuel costs. For the full year, the group could reach a profit of 2 billion dirhams ($543 million), Emirates president Tim Clark estimates. This is far below the 5.3 billion dirhams ($1.45 billion) reached in 2007/08, but still better than was expected earlier. While the price of fuel has come down significantly, Emirates is suffering from the appreciation of the US-dollarlinked dirham compared with the pound and the euro.
Clark predicts that the current real estate and banking crisis that has hit the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Dubai in particular, will not have a lasting impacton the Emirate.