DUBAI, May 13 (Reuters) - Dubai's Emirates airline on Monday reported full-year profit up more than 60% at 17.23 billion dirhams ($4.69 billion), comfortably beating the previous year's 10.6 billion dirhams.
The airline carried 51.9 million passengers in the year to March 31, with seat capacity up 21.4%.
"The business outlook is positive, with projections of strong, sustained demand for international air transport and travel," Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement.
"As always, we will keep a close watch on costs and external factors such as oil prices, currency fluctuations and volatile environments."
The state-owned airline will pay its staff a bonus equivalent to 20 weeks' salary, according to an internal staff email seen by Reuters.
Parent Emirates Group also reported record annual profit, up 71% at 18.7 billion dirhams, and said it would pay its owner, Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, a dividend of 4 billion dirhams.
($1 = 3.6726 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Nadine Awadalla Editing by Sonali Paul and David Goodman)
