• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Emirates Group half-year revenue hits $12.9bn

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The Emirates Group says during the week that despite a challenging business environment, its half-yearly results show steady performance and growth as it recorded $12.9 billion in revenue.

It says despite all odds marked by ongoing health pandemic concerns, regional conflicts, and weakening global markets, its revenues for the first six months of its 2014-15 fiscal year was up 12 percent from $ 11.5 billion of the same period last year.

Net profit for the Group rose to $607 million, an increase of 1 percent over the last year’s results.

The Group’s cash position as of September 30, 2014, was at $4.4 billion, compared with $5.2 billion as of March 31, 2014. This is due to ongoing investments mainly into new aircraft and other airline related infrastructure projects.

“As the biggest operator at Dubai International, we also took the biggest hit to our bottomline from the 80-day runway upgrading works. However, we had anticipated it and made meticulous plans to minimise impact operationally and commercially for both Emirates and dnata. The success of these plans can be seen in our overall growth during this six-month period in spite of the challenge.

“It is those external threats that we cannot anticipate or directly manage, such as the global economic malaise, the Ebola outbreak, currency fluctuations, and regional conflicts, that could negate our efforts and plans. These issues appear to be piling up, impacting commercial aviation and travel, but show no signs of speedy resolution. Therefore, it is critical that we stay agile as we grow. The ability to adapt and act quickly will determine our continued success. Moving forward, we will keep a watchful eye on these challenges, but continue to focus on our long-term goals and invest in the infrastructure of both Emirates and dnata,” Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman/chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said.

He said in the past six months, the Group continued to develop and expand its employee base, increasing its overall staff count by 5 percent to over 79,000 compared with March 31, 2014.

As for Emirates Airlines itself, during the first six months of the fiscal year, it received 13 wide-body aircraft – 6 A380s, 7 Boeing 777s, with 11 more new aircraft scheduled to be delivered before the end of the financial year

Emirates also expanded its global route network by launching services to four new destinations – Abuja, Chicago, Oslo, and Brussels, exponentially increasing the number of city-pair flight options that it provides to customers across the globe with each new city served.

Operating the world’s largest fleet of A380s and the largest fleet of Boeing 777s, Emirates continues to provide ever better connections for its customers across the globe with just one stop in Dubai.

It flies to 146 destinations in 83 countries as of September 30, up from 137 cities in 77 countries last year.

Sade Williams