DUBAI, Oct 18: Emirates airline plans to issue a two billion dirham ($544.5 million) bond this year to finance expansion plans, an airline spokesman said on Saturday.

This is part of the financing of our expansion, said the spokesman who asked not to be named. He gave no further details.

Dubai government-owned Emirates has one of the fastest-growing fleets in the world, with about $26 billion in new planes on order, including 45 of Airbus’s massive A380s, which will be delivered beginning in 2006.

Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said in remarks published on Saturday that the new issue would be used to finance the purchase of new aircraft and would be listed on the Dubai Financial Market.

The documents related to the new issue have actually been sent to the banks and financial establishments in the UAE and the region and the responses received from all were positive and encouraging, he told the United Arab Emirates’ Al Khaleej newspaper.

In 2001, Emirates airline doubled its first bond issue to 1.5 billion dirhams after it was oversubscribed. It was issued in the form of a Floating Rate Note with a maturity of five years and interest paid semi annually at 70 basis points over Emirates InterBank Offered Rate.

The airline plans to more than double its fleet to 126 aircraft by 2012. In June, it announced a $12.5bn order for Airbus aircraft.

It hopes to double its passenger traffic by 2010, building from its Dubai hub, the busiest airport in the Middle East and a key transfer point for international travellers.

Sheikh Ahmed said the airline expected to exceed a targeted net profit of 1.25 billion dirhams for 2003/04 compared to slightly more than one billion dirhams in the last fiscal year. I can say that we shall exceed the targeted figure because the indices are good, he told the newspaper.—Reuters