The Emirates Group today announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED10.4 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 percent tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED9.3 billion ($2.5 billion).
Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED20.4 billion, slightly lower from AED20.6 billion last year.
Strong revenue growth
Group revenue was AED70.8 billion for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5 percent from AED67.3 billion last year. This reflects the consistently strong customer demand across business divisions, and across regions.
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The group closed the first half year of 2024-25 with a solid cash position of AED43.7 billion on September 30, 2024, compared to AED47.1 billion on March 31, 2024. Moreover, 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 AED2 billion in dividend to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2023-24 financial year.
“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,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
“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,” he added.
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To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to March 31, 2024, grew 3 percent to an overall count of 114,610 on September 30, 2024.
Emirates airline
Emirates airline’s profit before tax for the first half of 2024-25 hit a new record of AED9.7 billion, compared to AED9.5 billion for the same period last year. The airline’s profit after tax is AED8.7 billion.
Emirates revenue, including other operating income, of AED62.2 billion was up 5 percent compared with AED59.5 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 percent in line with increased operations. Fuel remains the largest component of the airline’s operating cost (32 percent), compared to 34 percent in the same period last year.
Driven by customer demand and increased operations during the six months, Emirates’ EBITDA of AED19.1 billion remained very strong, although slightly down by 2 percent compared to AED19.5 billion for the same period last year.
Expanding network
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 eight cities: Amsterdam, Cebu, Clark, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Manila and Singapore.
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In May, Emirates restarted daily services to Phnom Penh in Cambodia via Singapore. A month later, 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 September 30.
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.
Growing capacity
Between April 1 and September 30, eight aircraft (three A380s, five Boeing 777s) with fully refreshed interiors rolled out of the airline’s $ 4 billion retrofit programme.
Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased by 5 percent to 29.9 billion available tonne kilometres (ATKM) due to expanded flight operations. Capacity measured in available seat kilometres (ASKM) increased by 4 percent, whilst passenger traffic carried measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKM) was up by 2 percent with an average passenger seat factor of 80 percent, compared with 81.5 percent during the same period last year. Emirates carried 26.9 million passengers between April 1 and September 30, 2024, up 3 percent from the same period last year.
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