DUBAI, UAE, 07 November 2024: The Emirates Group announced Friday its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion (USD2.8 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, surpassing its record profit before tax for the same period last year.
This is the first financial year that the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group. After accounting for the 9% tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion (USD2.5 billion).
Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED 20.4 billion (USD5.6 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion (USD5.6 billion) last year.
Group revenue was AED 70.8 billion (USD19.3 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5% from AED 67.3 billion (USD18.3 billion) last year. This reflects consistently strong customer demand across business divisions and regions.
The Group closed the first half year of 2024-25 with a solid cash position of AED 43.7 billion (US$ 11.9 billion) on 30 September 2024, compared to AED 47.1 billion (US$ 12.8 billion) on 31 March 2024. The Group has been able to tap into its own strong cash reserves to support business needs, including payments for new freighter aircraft orders and other debt payments. The Group also paid AED 2 billion in dividends to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2023-24 financial year.
His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group said: “The Group has surpassed its record performance of last year to deliver a fantastic result for the first half of 2024-25…The Group’s strong profitability enables us to make the investments necessary for our continued success. 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.”
HH Sheikh Ahmed 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 join the Emirates fleet and new facilities come 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.”
Emirates airline
Emirates continued to enhance its network and increase connectivity options through its Dubai hub. During the first half of 2024-25, Emirates increased scheduled flights to 8 cities: Amsterdam, Cebu, Clark, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Manila and Singapore.
In May, Emirates restarted daily services to Phnom Penh in Cambodia via Singapore. In June, it launched daily services to Bogotá via Miami, expanding the airline’s South American presence to Colombia. In September, Emirates opened a new route to Madagascar via the Seychelles – taking its passenger 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 entered into new agreements with seven codeshare, interline, and intermodal partners: AirPeace, Avianca, BLADE, ITA Airways, Iceland Air, SNCF Railway, and Viva Aerobus.
Between 1 April and 30 September, eight aircraft (three A380s, five Boeing 777s) with fully refreshed interiors rolled out of the airline’s USD4 billion retrofit programme. This enabled Emirates to accelerate the deployment of its latest cabin products, including its latest 4-class Boeing 777 that feature a new 1-2-1 layout of lie-flat seats with personal minibars in Business Class, and the popular Emirates Premium Economy.
The first retrofitted Emirates 777 was deployed to Geneva in August, followed by Tokyo Haneda and Brussels. For the next six months, as more aircraft are retrofitted, 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 year-end, Emirates’ latest A380 and Boeing 777 inflight experiences, including Premium Economy, will be available to customers on over 30 routes.
Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased by 5% to 29.9 billion Available Tonne Kilometres (ATKM) due to expanded flight operations. Capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKM) increased by 4%, whilst passenger traffic carried measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKM) was up by 2% with an average Passenger Seat Factor of 80.0%, compared with 81.5% during the same period last year. Emirates carried 26.9 million passengers between 1 April and 30 September 2024, up 3% from the same period last year.
Emirates profit before tax for the first half of 2024-25 hit a new record of AED 9.7 billion (USD 2.6 billion), compared to AED 9.5 billion (USD2.6 billion) for the same period last year. Emirates profit after tax is AED 8.7 billion (USD2.4 billion).
Emirates revenue, including other operating income, of AED 62.2 billion (USD16.9 billion) was up 5% compared with AED 59.5 billion (USD16.2 billion) for the same period last year. The airline’s new record revenue can be attributed to consistently strong travel and air cargo demand across markets, and its ability to offer customers great value and services.
Emirates’ direct operating costs (including fuel) grew by 6% in line with increased 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 during the six months, Emirates’EBITDA of AED 19.1 billion (US$ 5.2 billion) remained very strong, although slightly down by 2% compared to AED 19.5 billion (US$ 5.3 billion) for the same period last year.
For information on the airline and to make a booking visit www.emirates.com
