Emirates Group Announces Half-year Performance for 2021-22

The Emirates Group has announced its half-year results for its 2021-22 financial year.

Group revenue was $6.7 billion for the first six months of 2021-22, up 81% from $3.7 billion during the same period last year. This strong revenue recovery was underpinned by the easing of travel restrictions worldwide and the corresponding increase in demand for air transport as countries progressed their COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

The Group is reporting a 2021-22 half-year net loss of $1.6 billion, substantially improved from its $3.8 billion loss for the same period last year.

The Group also reported an EBITDA of $1.5 billion, a dramatic turnaround from a negative $12 million EBITDA during the same period last year, illustrating its strong return to operating profitability.

The Group continued to maintain a healthy cash position which stood at $5.1 billion on 30 September 2021, compared to $5.4 billion as on 31 March 2021.

His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “As we began our 2021-22 financial year, COVID-19 vaccination programmes were being rolled out at unprecedented scale around the world.

"Across the Group, we saw operations and demand pick up as countries started to ease travel restrictions. This momentum accelerated over the summer and continues to grow steadily into the winter season and beyond.

“Our cargo transport and handling businesses continued to perform strongly, providing the bedrock upon which we were able to quickly reinstate passenger services.

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"While there’s still some way to go before we restore our operations to pre-pandemic levels and return to profitability, we are well on the recovery path with healthy revenue and a solid cash balance at the end of our first half of 2021-22.

“We would like to thank our customers for their continued support, as well as all our aviation and travel industry stakeholders and partners for their efforts that have made it possible for international air travel to resume safely and smoothly.

“Our ability to pivot and pull through the toughest period in our history to date, can be attributed to Emirates’ and dnata’s strong brands, high quality products and services, digital and innovation capabilities, and our amazing people.

"We intend to continue investing in these core areas to take our business into the future, together with the leaner processes and new technology capabilities that we’ve implemented in the past months.”

The Emirates Group has been able to tap on its own strong cash reserves, and access funding through its Owner and the broader financial community to support its business needs through the unprecedented challenges wrought on the aviation and travel industry by COVID-19.

In the first half of 2021-22, its Owner further injected $ 681 million into Emirates by way of an equity investment and they continue to support the airline on its recovery path.

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The Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2021, dropped marginally by 2% to an overall count of 73,571 at 30 September 2021.

In line with the expected ramp up in capacity and business activities in the coming months, Emirates and dnata have embarked on targeted recruitment drives to support its requirements, prioritising the rehiring of employees previously on furlough or made redundant.

Emirates airline

During the first six months of 2021-22, Emirates took delivery of 2 new A380s and retired 2 older aircraft from its fleet as part of its long-standing strategy to improve overall efficiency, minimise its emissions footprint, and provide high quality customer experiences.

With a clear focus on restoring its passenger network and connections through its Dubai hub, Emirates responded with agility whenever travel restrictions lifted to restart services or layer on additional flights.

In July, it launched services to Miami, a new destination, and during the first half of 2021-22, Emirates also activated codeshare and interline partnerships with Airlink, Aeromar, Azul, Cemair and South African Airways to expand connectivity options for customers.

By 30 September, the airline was operating passenger and cargo services to 139 airports, utilising its entire Boeing 777 fleet and 37 A380s.

In the first half of 2021-22, Emirates Skycargo boosted its pharma cool chain handling infrastructure with the addition of 94 cool room pallet positions to its existing EU GDP compliant infrastructure at Dubai airport.

Emirates Skycargo continues to support the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, having carried over 150 million doses through its Dubai hub by July 2021.

dnata

dnata’s businesses in cargo and ground handling, catering and retail, and travel services saw demand return quickly wherever pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions were eased.

Demonstrating the agility and capability of its highly skilled teams, dnata was able to respond quickly to customer needs with high quality services - from supporting its airline customers in reinstating flight operations safely and smoothly, to helping customers book their long-awaited travel plans.

dnata also continued to invest in critical infrastructure to deliver more efficient world class services to its customers. In the first six months of 2021-22, dnata opened a 5,000 square meter workshop dedicated to providing advanced maintenance for airside passenger buses at Dubai airport.

dnata’s revenue, including other operating income, was $ 1 billion, a 55% increase compared to $644 million last year.

Overall profit for dnata is $ 23 million, compared to last year’s loss of $396 million.

dnata’s airport operations remains the largest contributor to revenue with $688 million, a 52% increase as compared to the same period last year. Across its operations, the number of aircraft handled by dnata increased sharply by 116% to 222,668, and it handled 1.4 million tonnes of cargo, up 9%.

dnata’s flight catering and retail operation, contributed $209 million to its revenue, up 80%. The number of meals uplifted doubled to 16.6 million meals for the first half of the financial year after last year’s 8.3 million.

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