ABU DHABI - Etihad Airways, one of the Gulf region's fast-growing carriers, said on Wednesday its income grew 31 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier on surging passenger numbers.
Revenues reached $1.25 billion, compared with $957 million for the corresponding period last year.
Total revenues so far for 2012 rose 30 percent to $2.4 billion from $1.73 billion in the first half of 2011.
Passenger numbers shot up 34 percent to 2.55 million in the second quarter, bringing the total for the first half to 4.89 million, "thanks to increased overall capacity and improve seat factors," the company said.
"These results are an endorsement of our strategy, which has seen us widen and deepen our partnerships in addition to continued focus on our organic growth plan," said CEO James Hogan.
"In a quarter when many airlines have seen demand softening, we have been able to add more passengers than ever before, with growth outstripping our capacity increases," he added.
Etihad said the results were "boosted by the airline's growing network of code shares and strategic partnerships," which added 800,000 passengers to the airline's network in the first half.
With a young fleet of 67 aircraft, Etihad, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government, serves 84 passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
It has an order book of 100 aircraft, including 10 super jumbo Airbus A380s.
The carrier owns nearly 30 percent of airberlin, Europe's sixth-largest airline, and 40 percent of Air Seychelles.
