Emirates airline profit jumps, may buy more A380s

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Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:07am EDT

DUBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - Dubai-based Emirates [EMAIR.UL], the largest Arab airline, posted an 20.2 increase in second-half profit and said it may buy more Airbus A380s.

Net income in the six months to March 31 rose to 1.9 billion dirhams ($517.4 million) from 1.58 billion dirhams in the year-earlier period, Reuters calculated based on full-year data the company released in Dubai on Thursday.

Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said the airline was close to a compensation deal with Airbus EADS.PA on its delayed A380s and may buy more of the aircraft.

"We are very close to completing in the next few weeks the compensations," he told reporters in Dubai. "In terms of cancelling the A380s, no. Maybe we are buying more," he added.

Emirates carried 10.5 million passengers in the second half, up from 7.52 million in the year-earlier period.

Emirates, the world's eighth-largest international air passenger carrier in 2005, operates a fleet of 102 aircraft and has another 106 on order, including 43 of Airbus's A380 superjumbo.

The government-owned airline plans to expand its fleet to 157 and double the number of its destinations to about 170 during the next five years, adding cities in the United States, Africa and India.

((Reporting by James Cordahi, editing by Quentin Bryar; Gulf newsroom +971 4 391 8301; dubai.newsroom@reuters.com))

($1=3.672 Dirham) Keywords: EMIRATESAIRLINE EARNINGS/

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