Air Arabia, a low-cost airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced Wednesday a surge of 33 percent in its net profit in the first quarter of 2007 over the previous quarter, Emirates News Agency reported.

The net profit of the Sharjah-based Air Arabia, the first low- cost airline in the Middle East and North Africa, reached 43.4 million dirhams (11.83 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2007, the company's CEO Adel Ali was quoted as saying.

For the same period, Air Arabia posted a turnover of 252 million dirhams. The airline served 580,000 passengers during the same period, up 17 percent compared with the previous quarter.

"We are extremely pleased to post such strong results for the first quarter of this year, which is historically a low season for the industry," Ali said.

"Today's announcement underscores Air Arabia's strong business model and operational excellence. ... We will continue to launch new and innovative services in the months to come," he added.

It had been reported earlier that the company's net profit in 2006 stood at 101 million dirhams, rising 222 percent compared to 31.3 million dirhams in 2005.

Analysts said that the market for low-cost airlines was heavily under-penetrated in the Middle East, which has left plenty of room for Air Arabia to prosper.

Airbus predicts Middle East passenger traffic to grow at an annual rate of 7.1 percent through 2015, compared to a global average of 5.3 percent.

Launched in October 2003 and modeled after leading American and European low-cost airlines, Air Arabia became profitable in 2005. It currently operates services to 35 destinations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. (1 U.S. dollar = 3.67 dirhams)

Source: Xinhua