Its no surprise that Emirates has yet again turned a profit in its operations as an airline and as a group as a whole. What in some ways is surprising is the pace at which it continues to be able to achieve such results with profits soaring even higher in 2024. Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators the Dubai-based airline has reported for its 2024 fiscal year.
Emirates Group As A Whole Turns a Profit (yet again)
I know that for those of you reading in Europe and North America it might seem strange to be reading of a fiscal year report as late as may. However, Dubai-based companies, such as Emirates, follow the English fiscal year structure. That means that the year kicks off on April 1st and wraps up on March 31st. Then it takes a bit of time to get the number crunching done and we get a full report in May.
What comes out of this 2023/2024 FY report is that the Emirates Group has yet again turned a profit, and what a profit I might add. The Emirates Group, which is comprised of Emirates Airline and Dnata, registered record high revenue reaching a staggering 39.6$ billion (USD), with a 6% growth over 2024’s level.
That then boils down to a before tax profit of 6.2$ billion (USD), up by 18% over last year, and a 5.6$ billion (USD) after tax profit, up by 10% over last year. To be noted that the after tax profit growth is sandbagged this year by corporate tax being introduced and applied for the first time to businesses based in Dubai.
Nonetheless, the post tax profits remain truly impressive and boil down to a 14.1% net operating margin. That is an incredibly high level, which in some parts of the world is only achieved by low-cost high-profit airlines.
| Group | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (bn$) | 39.6 | 37.4 | 6% |
| EBITDA (bn$) | 11.5 | 10.9 | 6% |
| Profit Before Tax (bn$) | 6.2 | 5.2 | 18% |
| Profit After Tax (bn$) | 5.6 | 5.1 | 10% |
| PAT margin | 14.10% | 13.60% | +0.5% pt |
| Cash assets | 14.6 | 12.8 | 13% |
| Employees at reporting date | 121,223 | 110,792 | 9% |
To enable such growth and accomodate future expansion the Emirates Group has beefed up its work force over the 2024 and will certainly continue to do so in 2025FY. The group wrapped up 2023FY with 110,792 employees, while 2024FY came to a close with 121,223, marking a 9% growth.
Emirates Airline’s 2024FY: The Fastest Growing Part of The Group
By far the Emirates Airline is the largest division of the Emirates Group. It is also the division that has achieved the fastest growth over the past 12 months of trading.
The airline increased both passengers and cargo transported over the 2024FY. Passengers were up from 51.9 million to 53.7 million, a 3% growth, while cargo was up from 2.2m tonnes to 2.3m tonnes, a 7% growth. However, the Dubai-based carrier was able to extract more from each of its clients as it achieved an 11% after tax profit growth. That is despite the minor reduction in load factor the airline suffered over 2024FY, which was down from 79.9% to 78.9%. The load factor is down because the carrier has opened a number of new destinations, releasing a substantial number of seats on the market which demand still not having caught up.
| Emirates | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (bn$) | 34.9 | 33 | 6% |
| EBITDA (bn$) | 10.8 | 10.2 | 5% |
| Profit Before Tax (bn$) | 5.8 | 4.8 | 20% |
| Profit After Tax (bn$) | 5.2 | 4.7 | 11% |
| PAT margin | 14.90% | 14.20% | +0.7% pt |
| Cash assets (bn$) | 13.5 | 11.7 | 16% |
| Passengers carried (million) | 53.7 | 51.9 | 3% |
| Seat factor | 78.90% | 79.90% | -1.0% pt |
| Cargo carried | 2.3m tonnes | 2.2m tonnes | 7% |
| Overall capacity | 60.0bn ATKMs | 57.7bn ATKMs | 4% |
| Available seat kms | 359.5bn ASKMs | 344.7bn ASKMs | 4% |
| Aircraft (number) | 260 | 260 | – |
| Employees at reporting date | 69,465 | 63,466 | 9% |
Other interesting figures to be noted are that Emirates has closed 2024FY with the same number of aircraft of 2023, while it has grown its workforce by 9% closing the year just shy of the 70k employee mark.
Finally Dnata Also Bolstering Excellent Growth Figures
Finally let’s touch on what Dnata’s 2024FY crunched down to. Dnata is the Emirates Group ground handling and catering division. It not only runs operations at Dubai International Airport (DXB), and DWC, but also in various other airports across the globe. The business volumes of Dnata are makably smaller than those of Emirates Airline, however, they too showed strong and sustained growth over the past 12 months.
Despite having to show for a 10% growth YoY in revenue, Dnata’s after tax profit actually slightly contracted from 2024 at -2%. That also reflects in the overall operating margin which shrunk from 7.4% to 6.6%, the new Dubai corporate tax probably taking a toll on the numbers.
| dnata | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (bn$) | 5.8 | 5.2 | 10% |
| EBITDA (million$) | 704 | 639 | 10% |
| Profit Before Tax (million$) | 430 | 422 | 2% |
| Profit After Tax (million$) | 381 | 387 | -2% |
| PAT margin | 6.60% | 7.40% | -0.8% pt |
| Cash assets (bn$) | 1 | 1.1 | -11% |
| Aircraft turns handled | 794,091 | 778,026 | 2% |
| Cargo handled | 3.1m tonnes | 2.9m tonnes | 9% |
| Meals uplifted | 114.0m | 116.8m | -2% |
| Travel services: Total transaction value (bn$) | 2.6 | 2.4 | 9% |
| Employees at reporting date | 51,758 | 47,326 | 9% |
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