THE band Emirates announced its best half-year financial result ever recorded.
The airline based in Dubai declared a half-yearly net profit of $2.7 billion for the 2023-2024 semester, an increase of 138% compared to the $1.2 billion reported for the corresponding period last year. Group revenue stood at $18.3 billion for the first six months of 2023-24, also up 20% year-on-year from $15.3 billion.
The increased revenue allowed the group to tap its own cash reserves to undertake the repayment of debt. Emirates said it has now repaid Dh9.2 billion of its loans linked to Covid-19 and that the group also paid 4.5 billion dirhams in dividends to its owner.
Emirates transported 26.1 million passengers between April 1 and September 30, 2023, an increase of 31% compared to the corresponding period last year. As of September 30, the airline operated passenger and cargo services to 144 airports, using the entirety of its Boeing fleet 777 (more than 130) and 104 A380.
“Our profit for the first six months of 2023-24 almost equaled our record profit for the full year 2022-23. For the second half of 2023-2024, we expect customer demand across our business divisions to remain healthy and we will remain agile in how we deploy our resources in this dynamic market. At the same time, we are closely monitoring headwinds such as price increase fuel, the strengthening of the US dollar, inflationary costs and geopolitics »said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group.
