How UAE defence giant EDGE Group plans to double its exports
The UAE defence conglomerate has put an aggressive strategy in place to increase its share of exports while navigating the growing gap between East and West.
Republic Airways Holdings has reported its preliminary passenger traffic results for December 2009 and for the complete calendar year.
The company generated 1,663,649,000 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 112.4% increase from 783,375,000 in the same month last year, while available seat miles (ASMs) increased 99.5% to 2,210,590,000 from 1,107,919,000.
Load factor was 75.3% versus 70.7% in December 2008, a 4.6 percentage point rise. A total of 2,534,542 passengers were carried during the month, a 68.1% increase from the figure of 1,507,744 for the same month in 2008. Block hours were 87,394 in December 2009, a 44.1% increase from December 2008.
For calendar year 2009, Republic’s RPMs grew 33% to 12,905,590,000 from 9,700,077,000 in 2008, with ASMs rising to 17,167,382,000 from 13,212,049,000, a 29.9% increase.
The load factor went up by 1.8 pp to 75.2% from 73.4% in 2008, with passengers carried increasing by 22.2% to 23,117,218 from 18,915,618.
Behind the magnitude of this growth are the inclusion of figures for Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines following their acquisition during 2009.
The UAE defence conglomerate has put an aggressive strategy in place to increase its share of exports while navigating the growing gap between East and West.
The US Congress has raised concerns about how inflation rates and cuts in main acquisition programmes could affect the US military.
Washington’s ageing inventory and the pace Moscow and Beijing have been modernising their capabilities put in check the US Nuclear deterrence.
The Pentagon has been operating under temporary funding since October 2023, which has impacted its main acquisition and development programmes, increasing the capability gap between the US and China.
In 2023, defence spending increased by an unprecedented 11% across European NATO countries and Canada. Since 2014, the group has spent an additional US$600 billion on defence.
The DoD requested nearly US$850 billion to fund operations over the next fiscal year. Despite the amount being 1% higher than the FY2024 budget request, it has not covered the 3% inflation rate, which could impact the DoD’s main programmes in the medium and long term.