Emirates reports record half-year pre-tax profit

Emirates SkyCargo

• Profit before tax up 2%
• Revenues up 5%
• Passenger numbers up 3%

Emirates airline recorded a post-tax profit of $2.4 billion (AED8.7 billion) for the first half of the year, down 7 percent compared to the same period last year. 

This year marks the first time state-owned Emirates has had to pay UAE corporate income tax. 

When compared to the previous year before tax, the airline reported a record $2.6 billion profit, up 2 percent from the previous year.

Dubai’s flagship carrier reported revenue of nearly $17 billion, up 5 percent on the previous year, which it attributed to strong travel and air cargo demand across regions. 

Over the period Emirates added new routes and increased connectivity to existing ones. It also completed retrofits on eight aircraft as part of its $4 billion programme. 

Emirates carried around 27 million passengers between April 1 and September 30, a year-on-year increase of 3 percent. Average passenger seat factor (how full the aircraft are) reached 80 percent, down slightly from 81.5 percent in 2023.

Its fuel costs, which account for one third of operating costs, increased by 6 percent, in line with increased operations. 

Emirates SkyCargo carried 16 percent more freight in the six-month period compared to last year, on the back of strong Chinese ecommerce traffic and a rise in shipments bound for Dubai. 

The company’s holding group paid $544 million in dividends to its owner, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, which is the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund. 

Dnata, the airline’s sister company that focuses on airport services, reported a profit after tax of $156 million, down 19 percent compared to a year previously. 

The airline said Dnata’s EBITDA, which measures its operational profitability, was $354 million, up 16 percent from last year. 

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Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum said: “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.” 

Air traffic in the Middle East and North Africa region has rebounded beyond pre-pandemic levels, with the UAE marking the highest gains in volume (up 39 percent), according to a study by Airports Council International.

John Grant, a partner at UK consultancy Midas Aviation and an AGBI columnist, said Emirates’ results are very positive.  

“Given the operational challenges that airlines are facing at the moment, especially in the supply chain and subsequent grounding of aircraft, those are a decent set of results,” Grant said. 

“Demand globally has softened very slightly from the highs of last year and the last of the pandemic revenge spend and we need to remember that the profit and loss does include tax costs that were not previously charged.”