Emirates Group has benefited from cost cuts and a stable dollar conditions after its first annual earnings decline in five years as the biggest long haul airline net profit spiked by 77 per cent. Net income increased to 2.3 billion dirhams ($630 million) in the six months ended Sept. 30, with sales advancing 6 per cent to 49.4 billion dirhams.
The Group’s cash position on 30th September 2017 was at 18.9 billion dirhams (US$ 5.2 billion), compared to 19.1 billion dirhams (US$ 5.2 billion) as at 31st March 2017. His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “A lot of the credits for our 2017-18 half-year results go to our talented workforce who have worked hard to improve our business performance and address our challenges without compromising on quality and service.
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“Our margins continue to face strong downward pressure from increased competition, oil prices have risen, and we still face weak economic and uncertain political realities in many parts of the world. Yet, the Group has improved revenue and profit performance. This speaks to the resilience of our business model, and the agility of our people.
“The easing of the strong US dollar against other major currencies helped our profitability. We are also seeing the benefit from various initiatives across the company to enhance our capability and efficiency with new technologies and new ways of working. Moving forward, we will continue to keep a careful eye on costs while investing to grow our business and provide our customers with world-class products and services.” In the past six months, the Group’s employee base reduced by 3% compared to 31 March 2017, from an overall staff count of 105,746 to 102,669. This was largely a result of natural attrition together with a slower pace of recruitment, as various parts of the business adopted new technologies, streamlined business processes and re-allocated resources.
Emirates continue to invest in the most advanced wide-body aircraft to improve overall efficiency and provide better customer experience. During the first six months of 2017-18, Emirates received 10 wide-body aircraft – 4 Airbus A380s, and 6 Boeing 777s, with 9 more new aircraft scheduled to be delivered before the end of the financial year. It also retired 5 older aircraft from its fleet with further 4 to be returned by 31 March 2018.
Emirates launched two new passenger services in the first six months of its financial year – to Zagreb (Croatia) and Phnom Penh (Cambodia). As of 30 September, Emirates’ global network spanned 156 destinations in 84 countries. Its fleet stood at 264 aircraft including freighters. Emirates continues to provide ever better connections for its customers across the globe with just one stop in Dubai.
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In July, the airline announced a partnership with flydubai, leveraging both airlines’ complementary networks to open new city-pair routings for customers and optimize operations at Dubai International airport. Emirates also announced it will extend its successful partnership with Qantas for a further five years in tandem with joint network adjustments that will offer travellers more connectivity and flight choices to and from Australia and New Zealand.
Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased a modest 2% to 30.8 billion Available Tonne Kilometres (ATKM). Capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKM), grew by 3%, whilst passenger traffic carried measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKM) was up 5% with average Passenger Seat Factor rising to 77.2%, compared with last year’s 75.3%.
Emirates carried 29.2 million passengers between 1 April and 30 September 2017, up 4% from the same period last year. The volume of cargo uplifted at 1.3 million tonnes is up 5% while yield improved by 8%. This solid performance speaks to Emirates Sky Cargo’s recent investments in products and services tailored to key sectors, and it is also a positive sign of a gradual recovery in the global air freight market.
IFEOMA OKEKE
