São Paulo – The profit of Emirates Group, which includes the namesake airline and Dnata, an airline services arm, fell 64% in the first six months of the 2016-2017 fiscal year ended in September. In value, the profit of the Arab group declined from USD 1 billion to USD 364 million. The information was made public this Wednesday (9) via the airline’s website.
The group’s revenue from March to September of this year went up 1% to USD 12.7 billion. The company’s assets went from USD 6.4 billion in March of this year, when the 2015-2016 fiscal year ended, to USD 4.1 billion in September, a decline of 36%.
According to the group’s statement, financial losses were cause mainly by fleet investments, infrastructure projects, business acquisitions and repayments of bonds, loans and leases liabilities.
“Our performance for the first half of the 2016-2017 financial year continues to be impacted by the strong US dollar against other major currencies. Increased competition, as well as the sustained economic and political uncertainty in many parts of the world has added downward pressure on prices as well as dampened travel demand,” said sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of both Emirates Airline and Emirates Group.
“In the first six months of this year, both Emirates and Dnata continued to grow in capability and capacity. Our past investments in product and services are now paying off, enabling us to retain valued clients and attract new customers – reflected in the airline’s passenger growth of 2.3 million. We continue to make strategic investments, because we know we have to work even harder for every customer, and make every dollar spent go even further through innovation and driving efficiency across our business,” said the executive.
From April 1 to September 30 of this year, Emirates Airline carried 28 million passengers, a 9% increase against the same period of last year. The cargo volume carried remained stable at 1.3 million tons. The airline’s net profit in the first half of the 2016-2017 fiscal year declined 75% to USD 214 million.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani