The Emirates Group Posts $1.2 Billion Net-Profit For The First Half Of 2022

The Dubai-based Emirates Group has posted a significant profit for the first half of its 2022-23 financial year. According to the group, it recorded a net profit of AED 42. billion across the six months, corresponding to $1.2 billion. The Emirates airline carried 20 million passengers during the half, a 228% increase year on year, showing the carrier’s strong post-pandemic recovery.

Just over two and a half years ago, the entire Emirates fleet was grounded when the United Arab Emirates closed its borders at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a strong recovery, the airline group now hopes to continue restoring its operations to pre-pandemic levels over the coming months.

Passengers up, cargo down

Emirates boosted its passenger capacity (measured in available seat kilometers) by 123% in the first six months of its financial year. In the same period, its revenue passenger kilometers increased by 265%. Aircraft were far fuller than in 2021, with an average load factor of 78.5% compared to the previous year.

Photo: Tom Boon – Simple Flying

The increase in passengers was partially responsible for the decrease in cargo. A year ago, Emirates used some of its passenger aircraft to carry freight. As these have been converted back into passenger aircraft, Emirates SkyCargo only managed to move 936,000 tonnes, a 14% decrease year on year.

According to schedule data from Cirium, the airline’s operations changed as follows between the two years (number of flights shown),

Of the 68,379 passenger flights scheduled during the half, 17,367 (25%) were operated by the Airbus A380. This is a massive 245% increase from 2021, when just 5,024 Airbus A380 flights were scheduled, corresponding to 13% of the total schedule. According to fleet data from ch-aviation.com, most of the airline’s Boeing 777s are in service today, while 82 of 116 Airbus A380s (71%) are active.

Increased operating costs

Based on two key factors, Emirates’ operating costs rose significantly compared to the previous year. Firstly, overall capacity grew by 40% to 22.8 billion available tonne kilometers, and naturally, more flights mean more needs to be spent on fuel, crew, airport fees, etc…

Photo: Tom Boon – Simple Flying

Dialing in on fuel, the airline needed 65% more fuel than the previous year. However, the average price of oil also doubled. Fuel accounted for around 38% of the airline’s operating costs this half, compared to just 20% the previous year.

What about dnata?

The airline portion of the Emirates Group posted a record profit of AED 4 billion ($1.1 billion) following a more considerable loss last year. dnata, which handles airport operations at airports worldwide, saw a much smaller profit. For the half, dnata posted AED 236 million ($64 million) profit, around three times that of last year.

The different divisions of dnata each saw uplifts in revenue, though they weren’t consistent,

• Airport Operations – 37% revenue increase
• Flight Catering – 212% revenue increase
• Travel Division – 708% revenue increase

What do you make of the Emirate Group’s H1 2022 profits? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!

Sources: ch-aviation.com, Cirium, Emirates