…says it entered codeshare agreement with Air Peace, others

By Dickson Omobola

The Emirates Group has said it posted 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 was just as the group said during the first six months of 2024, it entered into new agreements with Air Peace, Avianca, BLADE, ITA Airways, Iceland Air, SNCF Railway, and VivaAerobus to expand customer’s connectivity options.

The group also noted that it was the first financial year that the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, was applied to the Emirates Group.

It said after accounting for the 9 per cent tax charge, the group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion ($2.5 billion).

Demonstrating strong operating profitability, the group reported a 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 (US$ 19.3 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5 per cent from AED 67.3 billion (US$ 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 (US$ 11.9 billion) on 30 September 2024, compared to AED 47.1 billion (US$ 12.8 billion) on 31 March 2024. 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.

Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, 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.

“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.”

Meanwhile, to support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2024, grew 3 per cent to an overall count of 114,610 on 30 September 2024. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements.

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 September 30.