The Emirates Group announced its best-ever six-month financial result, reporting a 2023-24 half-year net profit of AED10.1 billion ($2.7 billion), surpassing its record half-year profit of AED4.2 billion ($1.2 billion) last year by 138%.
The group also reported an EBITDA of AED20.6 billion ($5.6 billion), a significant improvement from AED15.3 billion ($4.2 billion) during the same period last year, illustrating its strong operating profitability.
Group revenue was AED67.3 billion ($18.3 billion) for the first six months of 2023-24, up 20 percent from AED56.3 billion ($15.3 billion) last year. This was driven by strong demand for air transport across the world, which has been on an upward trajectory since the last pandemic travel restrictions were lifted, the group said.
The group closed the first half year of 2023-24 with a solid cash position of AED42.7 billion ($11.6 billion) on September 30, 2023, compared to AED42.5 billion ($11.6 billion) on March 31, 2023. The group has been able to tap on its own strong cash reserves to support business needs, including debt payments. So far, Emirates has repaid AED9.2 billion of its Covid-19 related loans. The group also paid AED4.5 billion in dividend to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2022-23 financial year.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “We are seeing the fruition of our plans to return stronger and better from the dark days of the pandemic. The group has surpassed previous records to report our best-ever half-year performance. Our profit for the first six months of 2023-24 has nearly matched our record full year profit in 2022-23. This is a tremendous achievement that speaks to the talent and commitment within the organisation, the strength of our business model, and power of Dubai’s vision and policies that has enabled the creation of a strong, resilient, and progressive aviation sector.
“Across the group, we’ve continued to ramp up operations safely and move nimbly to meet customer demand. We’ve implemented a series of service and product enhancements to win customer preference, and we’ll continue to invest in our people, products, partnerships, and technology to strengthen our capabilities and ensure we are future ready.”
Sheikh Ahmed added: “For the second half of 2023-24, we expect customer demand across our business divisions to remain healthy and we will stay agile in how we deploy our resources in this dynamic marketplace. At the same time, we are keeping a close watch on headwinds such as rising fuel prices, the strengthening US dollar, inflationary costs, and geo-politics.”
To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates group’s employee base, compared to March 31, 2023, grew 6 percent to an overall count of 108,996 on September 30, 2023. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements, it said.
Emirates airline
Emirates continued to increase its global flight operations, adding capacity and connections through its Dubai hub to meet customer demand across markets. During the first half of 2023-24, the airline restored A380 operations to Bali, Beijing, Birmingham, Casablanca, Nice, Shanghai, and Taiwan.
In July, it launched daily non-stop services to Montreal, a new destination and the airline’s second gateway in Canada.
Expanding connectivity options for customers, Emirates entered and enhanced codeshare or interline agreements with 8 airlines in the first six months of 2023-24: Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Etihad Airways, Kenya Airways, Philippine Airlines, Maldivian, Sri Lankan Airlines, and United Airlines. The codeshare partnership between Emirates and Qantas, which has seen over 15 million travelers benefit from joint flight itineraries since its establishment in 2013, received approvals for a further 5-year extension until 2027.
By September 30, the airline was operating passenger and cargo services to 144 airports, utilizing its entire Boeing 777 fleet and 104 A380s. During the first six months of 2023-24, 10 A380 aircraft rolled out of Emirates’ retrofit program with completely refreshed cabin interiors and latest onboard products including Premium Economy seats. This enabled the airline to deploy its highly sought-after Premium Economy services on more new routes including New York JFK, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Singapore.
Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased by 25 percent to 28.5 billion Available Tonne Kilometres (ATKM) due to an expanded flight program. Capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKM), increased by 30 percent, whilst passenger traffic carried measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKM) was up by 35 percent with an average Passenger Seat Factor of 81.5 percent , compared with 78.5 percent during the same period last year.
Passenger numbers
Emirates carried 26.1 million passengers between April 1 and September 30, 2023, up 31 percent from the same period last year. Emirates Skycargo uplifted 1,035,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, an 11 percent increase compared to the same period last year despite an overall softening in the global cargo market. This reflects the cargo division’s ability to meet customer demand with specialised products, and the excellent network options on offer with its freighter and bellyhold cargo operations.
Emirates’ profit for the first half of 2023-24 hit a new record of AED9.4 billion ($2.6 billion), compared to AED4 billion ($1.1 billion) during the same period last year. Emirates’ revenue, including other operating income, of AED59.5 billion ($16.2 billion) was up 19 percent compared with the AED50.1 billion ($13.7 billion) recorded in the same period last year.
The airline’s record performance is attributable to the strong passenger demand for international travel across markets and Emirates’ ability to activate capacity to match demand; and offer customers great value and services, it said.
Emirates’ direct operating costs (including fuel) grew by 9 percent in line with increased operations. Fuel remains the largest component of the airline’s operating cost (34 percent), compared to 38 percent in the same period last year.
Driven by strong demand and increased operations during the six months, Emirates’ EBITDA grew by 33 percent to AED19.5 billion ($5.3 billion) compared to AED14.7 billion ($4.0 billion) for the same period last year.
dnata
dnata continued to ramp up operations across its cargo and ground handling, catering and retail, and travel services businesses. This drove strong revenue growth in the first six months of 2023-24.
In the first half of 2023-24, dnata’s catering and airport services won significant new contracts and grew existing customers across its international operations. This shows dnata’s ability to serve the growing operations of airline customers, and deliver high quality products and services despite lingering operational challenges in many markets such as a shortage of skilled workforce, supply chain issues, and inflationary pressures.
dnata’s revenue, including other operating income, of AED9.3 billion ($2.5 billion) increased by 27 percent compared to AED7.3 billion ($2.0 billion) generated in the same period last year. Overall profit for dnata is AED709 million ($193 million), compared to same period last year’s AED236 million ($64 million).
dnata’s travel division contributed AED1.4 billion ($375 million) to revenue, up 16 percent compared to AED1.2 billion ($323 million) for the same period last year. dnata saw strong contributions from Destination Asia, its destination management business in Asia; and from its cruise holidays business, Imagine Cruising, in which dnata has acquired controlling interest.
