DOHA (Reuters) -State-owned Qatar Airways posted an annual internet revenue of a document 7.8 billion riyals ($2.1 billion) for the 2024 monetary yr ended March 31, up 28% from a yr earlier, the corporate mentioned on Monday, and expects robust demand forward.
Demand from the Gulf has defied a world slowdown, with regional airways reporting regular bookings whilst commerce tensions, foreign money swings and recession fears weigh on key Western markets.
CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer mentioned the corporate had established strategic partnerships throughout the trade to allow it to “stay agile within the face of ever-shifting world occasions, whether or not political, financial or environmental.”
“Our greatest yr commercially within the airline’s historical past was 2024 and we totally count on demand in 2025 to stay as robust,” Al-Meer mentioned in an announcement.
Income and different working earnings rose over 6% to 86 billion riyals for the 12 months ended March 31. The airline carried simply over 43 million passengers over the yr, up 7.8% year-on-year.
Community capability grew by 4% in comparison with the earlier monetary yr.
Over the previous yr, Qatar Airways has acquired a 25% stake in Virgin Australia and a 25% stake in South Africa-based regional service Airlink.
It positioned an order final week for 160 Boeing 777X and 787 planes with GE Aerospace engines value $96 billion, the most important ever widebody deal for the businesses, throughout U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-profile go to to Qatar.
Qatar Airways noticed above-market development in passenger numbers from April 2024 till January this yr, a senior govt informed Reuters in March, up 9% throughout its community.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills and Federico Maccioni; Enhancing by David Holmes and Rachna Uppal)