The Emirates Group revealed its finest-ever six-month earnings today. The Group announced a half-year net profit for 2023–24 of AED 10.1 billion (US$ 2.7 billion), outpacing the record profit for the same period previous year of AED 4.2 billion (US$ 1.2 billion) by 138%.
Additionally, the Group recorded strong operating profitability with an EBITDA of AED 20.6 billion (US$ 5.6 billion), a significant improvement over AED 15.3 billion (US$ 4.2 billion) during the same period previous year.
For the first half of 2023–24, group revenue was AED 67.3 billion (US$ 18.3 billion), a 20% increase over AED 56.3 billion (US$ 15.3 billion) in the same period the previous year. The global demand for air travel has been steadily increasing since the last pandemic travel restrictions were removed, which is what caused this.
In comparison to AED 42.5 billion (US$ 11.6 billion) on March 31, 2023, the Group ended the first half of 2023–24 with a strong cash position of AED 42.7 billion (US$ 11.6 billion) on September 30, 2023. The Group has been able to meet its financial obligations, including debt payments, by drawing from its own substantial cash reserves. Emirates has paid back AED 9.2 billion of the loans associated with COVID-19 thus far. Additionally, the Group reported at the end of its 2022–2023 fiscal year that it had given its owner a dividend of AED 4.5 billion.
The Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, stated: “We are witnessing the realization of our objectives to rebound more robustly and effectively from the challenging times caused by the epidemic. The Group has reported our best-ever half-year performance, surpassing previous milestones. Our record full year profit in 2022–2023 is almost exactly matched by our profit for the first half of 2023–2024. This is a fantastic accomplishment that highlights the organization’s talent and dedication, the robustness of our business plan, and the effectiveness of Dubai’s vision and policies in fostering the development of a robust, resilient, and forward-thinking aviation industry.
We’ve continued to swiftly and safely ramp up operations across the Group to satisfy consumer demand. In order to gain client preference, we’ve improved our services and products in a number of ways. We’ll keep investing in people, partnerships, technology, and products to bolster our capacities and make sure we’re prepared for the future.
“We expect customer demand across our business divisions to remain healthy for the second half of 2023–2024,” Sheikh Ahmed continued. “We will stay agile in how we deploy our resources in this dynamic marketplace.” We are closely monitoring challenges including growing gasoline prices, the US dollar’s strength, inflationary expenses, and geopolitics at the same time.
In order to accommodate the heightened operations and business endeavors, the Emirates Group’s workforce expanded by 6% as of 30 September 2023, reaching 108,996 total employees, up from 31 March 2023. Emirates and Dnata are currently conducting recruitment drives in order to meet their future needs.
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In order to satisfy consumer demand across markets, Emirates kept expanding its international airline operations, adding capacity and connectivity through its Dubai hub. The airline resumed A380 service to Bali, Beijing, Birmingham, Casablanca, Nice, Shanghai, and Taiwan in the first part of 2023–2024.
It started daily nonstop flights to Montreal in July, which is a new route and the airline’s second entry point into Canada.
In the first half of 2023–24, Emirates entered and improved codeshare or interline agreements with eight airlines: Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Etihad Airways, Kenya Airways, Philippine Airlines, Maldivian, Sri Lankan Airlines, and United Airlines. This was done to increase connection options for consumers. More than 15 million passengers have benefited from combined flight schedules because to the codeshare agreement between Emirates and Qantas, which was approved for an additional 5-year extension to 2027.
By September 30th, the airline has used all 104 A380s and all of its Boeing 777 fleet to provide passenger and cargo services to 144 airports. Ten A380 aircraft from Emirates’ retrofit program debuted in the first half of 2023–24, with totally redesigned cabin interiors and the newest in onboard amenities, including as Premium Economy seats. As a result, the airline was able to launch its much-desired Premium Economy services on a number of additional routes, including those to Singapore, New York JFK, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Emirates introduced initiatives to improve the travel experience for customers in the first half of 2023–24. These included a new city check-in facility at Dubai International Financial Center, free onboard wi-fi for Emirates Skywards members, and a new meal pre-ordering capability that allows customers to choose their meal options in advance of travel. The campaign was starring Hollywood actor Penelope Cruz.
Source- Travel daily