The Emirates Group today announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, recording a profit before tax of AED 10,4 billion (US$ 2,8 billion) in the first six months of 2024-25, suring its record pre-tax profit in the same period last year.
This is the first financial year in which the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group. After ing for the 9% tax charge, the Group profit after tax is AED 9,3 billion (USD 2,5 billion).
Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a EBITDA robust AED 20,4 billion (US$5,6 billion), down slightly from AED 20,6 billion (US$5,6 billion) last year.
The group's recipe was AED 70,8 billion (US$ 19,3 billion) in the first six months of 2024-25, up 5% from AED 67,3 billion (US$ 18,3 billion) last year. This reflects consistently strong customer demand across all business divisions and regions.
The Group closed H2024 25-43,7 with a solid cash position of AED 11,9 billion (US$ 30 billion) as at 2024 September 47,1, compared to AED 12,8 billion (US$ 31 billion) as at 2024 March 2. The Group was able to leverage its own strong cash reserves to business needs, including payments for new cargo aircraft orders and other debt repayments. The Group also paid AED 2023 billion in dividends to its owner, as declared at the end of FY 24-XNUMX.
His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “The Group has sured its record performance of last year to deliver a fantastic result for the first half of 2024-25. This illustrates again the power of our proven business model working in combination with Dubai’s growth trajectory as a city of choice to live, work, visit, connect and do business.
“The Group’s strong profitability allows us to make the investments needed for our continued success. We are investing billions of dollars to bring new products and services to market for our customers; implement advanced technologies and other innovation projects to drive growth; and take care of our employees who work hard every day to ensure the safety and satisfaction of our customers.”
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed He added: “We expect customer demand to remain strong for the rest of 2024-25, and we look forward to increasing our capacity to grow revenues as new aircraft the Emirates fleet and new facilities come online at dnata. The outlook is positive, but we do not intend to rest on our laurels. We will remain agile in deploying our capacity and capabilities in a dynamic market.”
To increased operations and commercial activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2024, grew by 3% to an overall headcount of 114.610 as at 30 September 2024. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment campaigns to their future needs.
Emirates Airlines
Emirates has continued to enhance its network and increase connectivity options through its hub in Dubai. During the first half of 2024-25, Emirates has increased scheduled flights to 8 cities: Amsterdam, Cebu, Clark, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Manila and Singapore.
In May, Emirates restarted daily services to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, via Singapore. In June, it launched daily services to Bogota, via Miami, expanding the airline’s presence in South America to Colombia. In September, Emirates opened a new route to Madagascar, via Seychelles, bringing its enger and cargo network to 148 airports in 80 countries by 30 September.
Expanding connectivity options for customers, during the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates has signed new agreements with 7 codeshare, interline and intermodal partners: AirPeace, Avianca, BLADE, ITA Airways, Iceland Air, SNCF Railway and Viva Aerobus.
Between April 1 and September 30, 8 aircraft (3 A380s, 5 Boeing 777s) with fully renovated interiors left the retrofit program The airline’s $4 billion refurbishment plan has enabled Emirates to accelerate the rollout of its latest cabin products, including its latest 777-class Boeing 4 that features a new 1-2-1 layout of lie-flat seats with personal minibars in Business Class and the popular Emirates Economy.
The first refurbished Emirates 777 was sent to Geneva in August, followed by Tokyo Haneda and Brussels. Over the next six months, as more aircraft are refurbished, Emirates has lined up 10 more routes for its refurbished 777s: Riyadh, Zurich, Kuwait, Damman, Chicago, Boston, Dallas Fort Worth, Seattle, Newark-Athens and Miami-Bogota.
By the end of the year, Emirates’ latest A380 and Boeing 777 flight experiences, including Economy, will be available to customers on more than 30 routes.
On land, AED 44 million was invested to open new Emirates Lounges exclusive customer lounges at London Stansted and Jeddah airports, and refurbish existing facilities at Paris Charles De Gaulle. This is part of an ongoing multi-million pound programme to enhance its network of owned Emirates Lounges. In July, Emirates opened a new travel store concept in Hong Kong, its first outside the UAE, and plans to launch more experiential stores across its network as part of its retail strategy.
Emirates has continued to make progress in its environmental initiatives , increasing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) where available and viable. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates increased SAF for the first time at Singapore and London Heathrow.
Emirates has ed the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy (aireg) in ; and signed up as an industry partner of the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA) at the University of Cambridge, contributing to the research and development of emissions reduction pathways. The partnership with AIA also marked Emirates’ first disbursement of its US$200 million fund, specifically earmarked to R&D to advance sustainability solutions for aviation.
In the first half of 2024-25, Emirates has driven investment in its global brand visibility, notably g a significant new sponsorship deal to be the Official Airline Partner of The Championships – Wimbledon. Emirates has also extended its long-standing partnerships with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a further 8 years, and with Portugal’s SL Benfica football club for a further 5 years.
Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased by 5% to 29,9 billion of available tonne-kilometres (ATKM) due to the expansion of flight operations. The capacity measured in available seat kilometers (ASKM) increased by 4%, while enger traffic transported measured in revenue enger kilometers (RPKM) increased by 2% with a average enger seating factor of 80,0%, compared to 81,5% during the same period last year. Emirates carried 26,9 million engers between 1 April and 30 September 2024, an increase of 3% compared to the same period last year.
The Emirates SkyCargo transported 1.198.000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, an increase of 16% compared to the same period last year, with notable volume contributions from strong Chinese e-commerce traffic and an increase in shipments bound for Dubai.
Emirates SkyCargo was able to meet demand with additional capacity from 1 new Boeing 777 Freighter delivered and 2 additional Boeing 747Fs on wet lease. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates has placed orders for 10 additional Boeing 777 Freighters to its growth.
Strong customer demand for Emirates SkyCargo’s specialist products and excellent network of freighter and belly cargo operations saw cargo yields increase by 11%.
Emirates' profit before taxes for the first half of 2024-25 reached a new record of AED 9,7 billion (US$ 2,6 billion), compared with AED 9,5 billion (US$ 2,6 billion) for the same period last year. Emirates profit after tax is AED 8,7 billion (US$ 2,4 billion).
The recipe Emirates’ revenue, including other operating revenue, of AED 62,2 billion (US$ 16,9 billion) increased by 5% compared to AED 59,5 billion (US$ 16,2 billion) in the same period last year. The airline’s new revenue record can be attributed to consistently strong demand for travel and air cargo across all markets, and its ability to offer customers great value and service.
Operating costs Emirates’ direct costs (including fuel) grew 6% in line with the increase in operations. Fuel remains the largest component of the airline’s operating cost (32%), compared to 34% in the same period last year.
Driven by customer demand and increased operations over the six months, the EBITDA from Emirates of AED 19,1 billion (US$ 5,2 billion) remained very strong, although down slightly by 2% compared to AED 19,5 billion (US$ 5,3 billion) in the same period last year.
DNATA
dnata saw strong growth in the first six months of 2024-25 as it continued to scale up operations across its cargo and ground handling, catering and retail and travel services businesses.
In the first half of 2024-25, dnata’s airport services, catering and retail divisions won several significant new contracts and increased existing customers across its international operations. This demonstrates dnata’s ability to meet the diverse requirements of its airline customers with high safety standards and consistently high-quality products and services.
dnata continued to make strategic investments across its business to respond to customer needs and explore market prospects. Highlights in the first half of 2024-25 include: expanding its U.S. presence with the launch of ground handling operations at Raleigh-Durham International Airport; g significant agreements for new ground equipment (GSE) estimated to have a total lifetime value of over $210 million; and a planned 50% increase in cargo handling capacity in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional warehouse capacity.
dnata has also advanced its environmental agenda to reduce emissions, with investments to transition its entire fleet of non-electric vehicles and GSEs in the UAE to biodiesel, and the addition of more electric GSEs to its operations in Brazil and the UAE.
The dnata recipe , including other operating income, of AED 10,4 billion (US$ 2,8 billion) increased by 11% compared to the AED 9,3 billion (US$ 2,5 billion) generated in the same period last year.
The total profit before taxes dnata's net income is AED 720 million (US$ 196 million), down 5% from the same period last year, mainly due to a one-time impairment charge of AED 152 million. Profit after tax dnata is AED 571 million (US$ 156 million).
Illustrating its operating profitability, EBITDA dnata's revenue was AED 1,3 billion (US$ 354 million), an increase of 16% from AED 1,1 billion (US$ 305 million) last year.
dnata's airport operations remain the largest contributors to revenue, with AED 4,8 billion (US$ 1,3 billion), an increase of 15% compared to the same period last year, as operations of its airline customers continued to grow, especially in Australia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. In its operations, number of aircraft turns handled by dnata increased by 2%, to 391.365, and recorded 1,5 million tons of cargo handled , an increase of 18% due to dynamic demand for air cargo services globally.
dnata's in-flight retail and catering operations contributed AED 3,7 billion (US$ 1,0 billion) to its revenue, an increase of 8% from increases in catering production in Australia and the UK to meet customer demand, as well as growth in its retail product as part of the division’s strategy and the positive impact of revised contracts to reflect increased supply costs. The total number of meals increased decreased by 5% to 62,7 million meals compared to 66,3 million meals last year.
dnata's travel division contributed AED 1,8 billion (US$ 483 million) to revenue, an increase of 23% compared to AED 1,4 billion (US$ 391 million) in the same period last year, with strong contributions from its Imagine Cruising, Destination Asia and Middle East Corporate Travel businesses. The division reported an underlying total transactional value (TTV) of sales of AED 4,5 billion (US$ 1,2 billion), compared to AED 4,1 billion (US$ 1,1 billion) in the same period last year.
Via Emirates
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