By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The strong demand for international travel across regions, especially as the airline business recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, has helped Emirates Group, one of the big players in the aviation industry, to generate about $18.3 billion in the first six months of the financial year of the firm.
On Thursday, the company released its financial statements for the 2023/24 fiscal year, with earnings rising by 20 per cent from the $15.3 billion achieved a day ago.
The organisation, in the period under review, illustrated its strong profitability, as net profit went up by 138 per cent to $2.7 billion from $1.2 billion recorded in the first six months of last year.
The sterling performance excited Emirates Group, which described it as “its best-ever six-month financial result,” particularly because the EBITDA improved to $5.6 billion from $4.2 billion.
The Group closed the first half year of 2023-24 with a flattish cash position of $11.6 billion, allowing the firm to support business needs, including debt payments.
“We are seeing the fruition of our plans to return stronger and better from the dark days of the pandemic. The Group has surpassed previous records to report our best-ever half-year performance.
“Our profit for the first six months of 2023-24 has nearly matched our record full-year profit in 2022-23. This is a tremendous achievement that speaks to the talent and commitment within the organisation, the strength of our business model, and the power of Dubai’s vision and policies that have enabled the creation of a strong, resilient, and progressive aviation sector,” the Chairman of Emirates Group, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said.
“Across the group, we’ve continued to ramp up operations safely and move nimbly to meet customer demand.
“We’ve implemented a series of service and product enhancements to win customer preference, and we’ll continue to invest in our people, products, partnerships, and technology to strengthen our capabilities and ensure we are future-ready,” he added.
“For the second half of 2023-24, we expect customer demand across our business divisions to remain healthy and we will stay agile in how we deploy our resources in this dynamic marketplace.
At the same time, we are keeping a close watch on headwinds such as rising fuel prices, the strengthening US dollar, inflationary costs, and geopolitics,” he said.
Modupe Gbadeyanka