Emirates Group reports record half-year results for 2024-25

Emirates Airline and Group Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed 

The Emirates Group last week announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion ($ 2.8 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 ($ 2.5 billion).

Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED 20.4 billion ($ 5.6 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion ($ 5.6 billion) last year.

Group revenue was AED 70.8 billion ($ 19.3 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5% from AED 67.3 billion ($ 18.3 billion) last year. This reflects the consistently strong customer demand across business divisions, and across regions.

The Group closed the first half year of 2024-25 with a solid cash position of AED 43.7 billion ($ 11.9 billion) on 30 September, compared to AED 47.1 billion ($ 12.8 billion) on 31 March. The Group has been able to tap on 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 dividend to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2023-24 financial year.

Emirates Airline and Group Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said, “The Group has surpassed its record performance of last year to deliver 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.”

“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.”

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.”

To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March, grew 3% to an overall count of 114,610 on 30 September. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements.

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 aircrafts (three A380s, five Boeing 777s) with fully refreshed interiors rolled out of the airline’s $ 4 billion retrofit program. 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.

On ground, AED 44 million was invested to open new signature Emirates Lounges for premium customers in London Stansted and Jeddah airports, and refurbish the existing facility at Paris Charles De Gaulle. This is part of an ongoing multi-million dollar program to enhance its network of owned Emirates Lounges. In July, Emirates opened a new concept travel store in Hong Kong, its first outside of the UAE, and it plans to launch more experiential stores around its network as part of its retail strategy.

Emirates continued to progress on its environmental initiatives, uplifting sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) where available and feasible. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates uplifted SAF for the first time in Singapore and London Heathrow. 

Emirates joined the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy (aireg) in Germany, and signed up as industry partner of the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA) at the University of Cambridge, contributing to the research and development of emissions reduction pathways. The AIA partnership also marked Emirates’ first disbursement from its $ 200 million fund, specifically set aside to support R&D to advance sustainability solutions for aviation.

In the first half of 2024-25, Emirates boosted investments in its global brand visibility notably signing a significant new sponsorship deal to be Official Airline Partner of The Championships  – Wimbledon. Emirates also extended its longstanding partnerships with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a further eight years, and with Portugal’s SL Benfica football club for another five years.

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, up 3% from the same period last year.

Emirates SkyCargo transported 1,198,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, up 16% compared to the same period last year, with notable volume contributions from strong Chinese eCommerce traffic, and a rise in shipments bound for Dubai. 

Emirates SkyCargo was able to meet demand with added capacity from one new Boeing 777 freighter delivered, and two additional wet-leased Boeing 747Fs. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates placed orders for 10 additional Boeing 777 freighters to support its growth.

Strong customer demand for Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised products and excellent network of freighter and belly hold cargo operations saw cargo yields increase by 11%.

Emirates profit before tax for the first half of 2024-25 hit a new record of AED 9.7 billion ($ 2.6 billion), compared to AED 9.5 billion ($ 2.6 billion) for the same period last year. Emirates profit after tax is AED 8.7 billion ($ 2.4 billion).

Emirates revenue, including other operating income, of AED 62.2 billion ($ 16.9 billion) was up 5% compared with AED 59.5 billion ($ 16.2 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 ($ 5.2 billion) remained very strong, although slightly down by 2% compared to AED 19.5 billion ($ 5.3 billion) for the same period last year.

dnata

dnata saw strong growth in the first six months of 2024-25, as it continued to ramp 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 and catering and retail divisions won several significant new contracts, and grew existing customers across its international operations. This shows dnata’s ability to serve the diverse requirements of its airline customers with high safety standards and consistently high-quality products and services.

dnata continued to make strategic investments in its business to respond to customer needs and tap on market prospects. Highlights in the first half of 2024-25 include: the expansion of its USA footprint with the launch of ground handling operations at Raleigh-Durham International airport, the signing of significant deals for new ground support equipment (GSE) estimated at a total value of over $ 210 million over their lifespan, and the planned 50% increase in cargo handling capacity in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional warehouse capacity.

dnata also progressed its environmental agenda to reduce emissions, with investments to transition its entire fleet of non-electric airside vehicles and GSEs in the UAE to biodiesel, and the addition of more electric GSEs to its Brazil and UAE operations.

dnata’s revenue, including other operating income, of AED 10.4 billion ($ 2.8 billion) increased by 11% compared to AED 9.3 billion ($ 2.5 billion) generated in the same period last year.

Overall profit before tax for dnata is AED 720 million ($ 196 million), down by 5% from the same period last year, primarily due to a one-off impairment charge of AED 152 million. dnata’s profit after tax is AED 571 million ($ 156 million).

Illustrating its operating profitability, dnata’s EBITDA was AED 1.3 billion ($ 354 million), up 16% from last year’s AED 1.1 billion ($ 305 million). dnata’s airport operations remains the largest contributor to revenue with AED 4.8 billion ($ 1.3 billion), a 15% increase compared to the same period last year, as its airline customers’ operations continued to pick up particularly in Australia, Singapore, the UAE and UK. Across its operations, the number of aircraft turns handled by dnata increased by 2% to 391,365, and it recorded 1.5 million tonnes of cargo handled, up by 18% due to the buoyant demand for air cargo services globally.

dnata’s flight catering and retail operations, contributed AED 3.7 billion ($ 1.0 billion) to its revenue, up 8% with catering production increases in Australia and the UK to meet customer demand, as well as the growth of its retail product as part of the division’s strategy, and the positive impact of revised contracts to reflect rising supply costs. The overall number of meals uplifted decreased by 5% to 62.7 million meals compared to last year’s 66.3 million meals.

dnata’s travel division contributed AED 1.8 billion ($ 483 million) to revenue, up 23% compared to AED 1.4 billion ($ 391 million) for 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) sales of AED 4.5 billion ($ 1.2 billion), compared to AED 4.1 billion ($ 1.1 billion) for the same period last year.