DUBAI: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd has announced strong business momentum with sequential lease revenue growth of 7.1% in Q1 2021 This came as the company today revealed its financial results for the first three months ended on March 31, 2021.

According to the consolidated financial statements, owned and managed aircraft asset acquisitions and sales amounted to US$573 million and US$152 million, respectively The company also reported operating cash flows of US$218 million and adjusted profit before tax of US$25.0 million impacted by higher loss allowance.

The company's total revenue reached US$307.5 million in the reference period while available liquidity was reported at US$3,277.3 million (Year-end 2020: US$2,693.0 million)  Commenting on the results, Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE, stated, "We saw a robust level of business activity in Q1 2021 in both our Aircraft Leasing and Engineering divisions. Revenue at DAE’s Engineering division hit a record high, and DAE’s Aircraft Leasing division recorded sequential growth in lease revenue driven by net additions to our owned portfolio. We continued to underwrite new technology aircraft and grew our aircraft portfolio by taking delivery of 13 fuel efficient aircraft in Q1 2021.

"We continue to strengthen our balance sheet. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have added US$69.8 million to our loss allowance, which now stands at US$84.3 million. In addition, we augmented our liquidity position by issuing US$1.55 billion of new, unsecured debt in Q1 2021 with an average maturity of 5.25 years.

"We remain both encouraged by and vigilant about the trends in our industry. Air traffic demand in large domestic markets is recovering at an encouraging pace; however, cross-border travel is recovering at a slower and more uneven pace despite considerable pent-up demand globally. We remain confident that deployment of vaccines in the next six months will be faster and more broad-based than it has been heretofore, and this will form the foundation for the next leg up in international, regional and domestic air travel growth."

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