Air Arabia PJSC announced that its third quarter of 2012 net profit increased 126% to AED 226 million, from AED 100 million for the same period last year. The company also announced that its turnover for the third quarter reached AED 836 million, an increase of 19% compared to the same period last year.

The company's net profit for the first nine months of 2012 stood at AED 342 million, up 75% compared to AED 195 million for the same period in 2011. For the first nine months, the company also registered a turnover of AED 2.187 billion, an increase of 21% compared to the same period last year.

The company has also recorded a 14% increase in passenger traffic to over 1.3 million in the third quarter of 2012 and an average seat load factor, or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats, of 82%. The key driver here is the proliferation of routes not served by full service airlines - carriers like Air Arabia and flydubai are capitalising on this, especially as the population around a 5hour flight radius of the GCC tops over 2.5 billion people.

The company served more than 3.9 million passengers during the first nine months of 2012, an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year.

For 2012, the company will top profit forecasts as well as maintain and improve load factors which are already at over 82%.