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The Emirates Group

Aviation

The Emirates Group Overview

The Emirates Group is a state-owned Dubai-based aviation holding company that owns the Middle East’s largest airline Emirates, Emirates SkyCargo and the ground-handling services company Dnata.

Wholly owned by the Dubai government’s Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the Emirates Group is one of the biggest employers in the Middle East.

Revenues for 2023-2024 were a record AED 137.3 billion ($37.4 billion) and profits were AED 18.7 billion ($5.1 billion), up 71% from the previous year.

This led to it paying an AED 4 billion ($1.1 billion) dividend to the ICD. Analysis from AGBI shows that over the past 35 years Emirates Group has paid 29 dividends worth $7.6 billion to the sovereign wealth fund.

As well as airlines and air services the Emirates Group has diversified into numerous related industries and sectors.

These include Emirates Engineering, Emirates Aviation University, Arabian Adventures, MMI beverage sales and marketing, Transguard security and manpower services, Marhaba meet-and-greet, US mail-handling provider Metro Air Services and the flights website Netflights.

The Emirates Group is based in Al-Garhoud near Dubai International Airport.

The Emirates Group News

Restaurant costs: Dubai was named as one of the most expensive cities in the Middle East for expatriates in a survey last year

Dubai restaurants risk out-pricing customers on alcohol costs

The cost of eating out in Dubai’s restaurants is rising, especially if you’re washing your meal down with an alcoholic drink. Last year, Dubai was named the third-most expensive city in the world for a half-litre of draught beer at an average of $10.89, according to price comparison website Numbeo. Qatar was number one, followed […]

Dubai alcohol tax

Dubai distributors to swallow 30% tax on alcohol brands

Dubai’s two main alcohol distributors have promised to absorb most, and in some cases all, of the 30 percent tax that was reinstated on alcoholic drinks from January 1. The Dubai Municipality tax on alcoholic beverages was suspended from the start of 2023, continuing into 2024. It was widely seen as an attempt to make […]

Brands to be brewed in Dubai will include Heineken, Kingfisher and Moretti

Heineken joint venture to build brewery in Dubai

Dubai is to follow Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah in opening its own brewery.  Sirocco, a joint venture between the Dutch drinks company Heineken NV and the Emirates Group-owned Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI), will start construction on a new brewery, having secured all the necessary permits from the relevant local authorities, the company […]

Emirates took on $4.8bn in debt over the pandemic. Its deputy president and chief operations officer Adel Al Redha told AGBI that it has already paid back almost 70%

Emirates repays over 70% of $4.8bn pandemic debt

Dubai’s Emirates airline has already repaid billions of dollars of debt it raised during the pandemic, a senior official told AGBI. The emirate’s flagship carrier raised AED17.5 billion ($4.8 billion) in debt during the pandemic, when the aviation industry was brought to its knees as planes were grounded globally by strict lockdown rules. “I would […]

Dnata provides ground handling and cargo services, as well as catering, ramping and more

Dnata is 65, but its globetrotting is just getting started

Dnata began life 65 years ago as a small travel agency in Dubai. Today it is the airport services arm of Emirates Group, operating in over 30 countries and planning to expand to even more. This month, it signed ground handling contracts with Royal Jordanian Airlines at John F Kennedy airport in New York and […]

Around 3.5 million bottles of Champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent

Champagne shipments to the Gulf slow but still flowing

The growth in champagne shipments to the Gulf has slowed in recent years but the market is still one of the strongest in the world, bucking a global trend for declining sales. Around 3.5 million bottles of champagne were shipped to the Gulf states in 2023, an increase of about 40 percent, according to data […]

Aircraft, Airliner, Airplane

Emirates buys five A380 jets from London-listed lessor

Dubai’s Emirates will buy five A380 jumbo jets leased from London Stock Exchange-listed Doric Nimrod Air Two Limited for $200 million. The leases on the five jumbo jets are expected to end between October 1 and November 30, 2024. Emirates will pay $40 million per jet under the new deal. Doric Nimrod Air Two purchased seven […]

Dnata staff load cargo into a plane at Cointrin Airport in Geneva. The company's expansion into Rome will need a €20 million investment

Dnata CEO confident of victory in Rome airport case

The group CEO of Dnata, the Dubai-based global air and travel services provider, is “very confident” the company will soon begin operations in Rome. “We’re certainly planning to be operating this year,” Steve Allen told AGBI at a media event on Tuesday, referring to an appeal ruling on the decision to award ground-handling contracts due […]

Emirates chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum said he was 'confident in our resilience and ability to respond quickly' to challenges such as the recent flooding in Dubai

Dubai to receive $1bn dividend after record Emirates profits

Emirates Group will pay more than $1 billion in dividends to its owner, the Investment Corporation of Dubai sovereign wealth fund, after it announced record profits of just over $5 billion for the year. The holding group includes Dubai-based flag carrier Emirates and aircraft and airport services company Dnata. It repaid $596 million from the […]