Emirates announces best ever half-year financial performance
November 7, 2024
The Emirates Group has posted a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion for the first six months of 2024-2025. The profit after tax is AED9.3 billion.
This year marks the first application of the UAE corporate income tax, introduced in 2023, to the Emirates Group, reflecting robust demand across its business operations. The pre-tax profit also exceeds the company’s record pre-tax profit from the same period last year.
Fantastic result
Attributing the record results to the group’s business model and Dubai’s growth, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said it was a “fantastic result” for the first half of 2024-25. “This again illustrates 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 through and do business in.”
During the first six months of the reported period, Emirates increased scheduled flights to eight cities, including Amsterdam, Cebu, Clark, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Manila and Singapore. It also restarted daily connections with Phnom Penh in Cambodia via Singapore in May and in June launched daily services to Bogota via Miami. In September the airline expanded its network to cover 148 airports in 80 countries with the opening of a new route to Madagascar via the Seychelles.
It has also entered into new codeshare and interline agreements with carriers including AirPeace, Avianca, ITA Airways, Iceland Air, BLADE and Viva Aerobus.
Future-proofing the organisation
Looking ahead, the group’s profitability will enable it to make further investments with HH Sheikh Ahmed saying: “We’re investing billions of dollars to bring new products and services to the market for our customers; to implement advanced technologies and other innovation projects to drive growth; and to look after our employees who work hard every day to ensure our customers’ safety and satisfaction.”
The airline’s US$4 billion retrofit programme also saw the unveiling of cabin refurbishments for eight aircraft, including three A380s and five Boeing 777s during the first half of 2024-25. Meanwhile, on the ground, AED44 million was invested to open new lounges at airports including London Stansted and Jeddah, as well as the refurbishment of the existing lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Emphasising that he expects customer demand to remain strong throughout the rest of the 2024-25 period, HH Sheikh Ahmed added he is looking forward to increasing the airline’s capacity to grow revenues through fleet expansion and new facilities coming online at dnata. “The outlook is positive, but we don’t’ intend to rest on our laurels. We will stay agile in deploying our capacity and resources in a dynamic marketplace.”
Rising revenues for dnata
Part of the Emirates subsidiary group, dnata’s revenue rose 11% to AED 10.4 billion, although pre-tax profits of AED 720 million were down 5% compared to the same period last year. Dnata’s airport operations remain the largest contributor to its revenue with AED 4.8 billion, a 15% increase compared to the same period last year. The number of aircraft handled by its ground services teams across its operations increased by 2% to 391,365 and it recorded 1.5 million tonnes of cargo handled. Its flight catering and retail operations contributed AED3.7 billion to its revenue, while its travel division contributed AED 1.8 billion.
While overall the Emirates group maintained a robust EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of AED 20.4 billion, this was slightly lower than the AED 20.6 billion the previous year.
