Emirates is considering issuing up to US$1 billion in bonds next year to finance over 30 new aircraft due for delivery next year, the airline's chairman said on Sunday.
The airline will also tap some of its cash to help finance the purchase of aircraft.
"We are using some of the cash within the company," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum at the Dubai Airshow. "We have always to keep a cushion within the company, but also we will use many of the bonds, sukuk, you name it."
Emirates will issue between $500 million to $1bn in bonds, which is the usual size it sells to the market.
The airline issued this year around $1bn worth of Islamic bonds or sukuk to help finance aircraft purchases.
The airline has around 270 additional aircraft on order, worth a total of $129bn at list prices. Its order book includes 46 Boeing 777-300ERs, 115 Boeing 777-9Xs, 35 Boeing 777-8Xs and 74 Airbus A380s.
Lower fuel prices and higher passenger demand helped to boost Dubai’s flagship carrier in the first half of this year, with profit rising 65 per cent year on year to Dh3.1bn.
Emirates, which operates the world's biggest fleet of the Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft, said first-half revenue was down 4.2 per cent to Dh42.3bn.
Separately, Sheikh Ahmed said he is “optimistic” about upcoming talks on “fair competition” with the EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc, expected on Tuesday, as the European bloc addresses a commercial aviation agreement with Gulf states later this year.
“I think they need us and we need them, so we need to solve this problem,” he said.
Emirates and other Gulf airlines have been under fire by some of Europe’s airlines and their regulators, as they expand their services into the continent. Rivals such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM claim that Gulf carriers are backed by unfair state subsidies making them unable to compete at a “level playing field”. Gulf carriers have refuted their claims and argued they have instead contributed to the European economies with their increased flights within the continent.
Sheikh Ahmed again rejected these claims saying “we don’t get any penny of the government. Actually, we give [a] dividend to the government and not the other way around”.
dalsaadi@thenational.ae
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