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Profits at Emirates soar
Dubai-based airline Emirates has defied the gloom weighing down the aviation industry by more than doubling its profits to 1.7bn dirhams (£291m) for the six months to the end of September. The state-owned firm carried 18.7m passengers in the period, up 15.4 per cent from a year ago. Revenue rose 17 per cent on the same period last year. Emirates hopes its location – a third of the world’s population is within a four-hour flight radius – will continue to attract passenger traffic away from other global hubs such as London and New York.