Emirates Group recently announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion (US$ 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% tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion (USD 2.5 billion). Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED 20.4 billion (US$ 5.6 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion (US$ 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% 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 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.
His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group 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.”
HH Sheikh Ahmed added: “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.”
To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2024, grew 3% to an overall count of 114,610 on 30 September 2024. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements.
dnata saw strong growth in the first six months of 2024-25, as it continued to ramp up operations across its cargo and ground handling, catering and retail, and travel services businesses.
In the first half of 2024-25, dnata’s airport services and catering and retail divisions won several significant new contracts, and grew existing customers across its international operations. This shows dnata’s ability to serve the diverse requirements of its airline customers with high safety standards and consistently high-quality products and services.
dnata continued to make strategic investments in its business to respond to customer needs and tap on market prospects. Highlights in the first half of 2024-25 include: the expansion of its USA footprint with the launch of ground handling operations at Raleigh-Durham International airport; the signing of significant deals for new ground support equipment (GSE) estimated at a total value of over US$ 210 million over their lifespan; and the planned 50% increase in cargo handling capacity in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional warehouse capacity.
dnata’s airport operations remains the largest contributor to revenue with AED 4.8 billion (US$ 1.3 billion), a 15% increase compared to the same period last year, as its airline customers’ operations continued to pick up particularly in Australia, Singapore, the UAE and UK.
Across its operations, the number of aircraft turns handled by dnata increased by 2% to 391,365, and it recorded 1.5 million tonnes of cargo handled, up by 18% due to the buoyant demand for air cargo services globally.
dnata’s revenue, including other operating income, of AED 10.4 billion (US$ 2.8 billion) increased by 11% compared to AED 9.3 billion (US$ 2.5 billion) generated in the same period last year.
Overall profit before tax for dnata is AED 720 million (US$ 196 million), down by 5% from the same period last year, primarily due to a one-off impairment charge of AED 152 million. dnata’s profit after tax is AED 571 million (US$ 156 million).
Illustrating its operating profitability, dnata’s EBITDA was AED 1.3 billion (US$ 354 million), up 16% from last year’s AED 1.1 billion (US$ 305 million).
