Emirates Airline has announced a 6% increase in revenues to $12.1 bln and a 111% profit increase to $452 mln and a 4% pax growth to 29.2 million during the first half of the financial year.

5 aircraft were retired with another 4 set for retirement before the end of the financial year.

"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%."

source: https://emirates-group-news.prezly.com/ ... or-2017-18

Good news, maybe 2016 was as bad as it will get. Good to see load factors have grown (they have been falling for a number of years) - maybe there slow down in growth along with EY's is helping.

log0008 wrote:

Good news, maybe 2016 was as bad as it will get.

It certainly seems that EK has recovered very quickly.

IMO, Emirates is entering a new era, gone are the days of rapid expansion and ambitious new routes (leave them to QR), Emirates will now focus on growing with demand rather than growing to create the demand, thus helping it improve load factors and yields. They are lucky that this has occurred when there oldest aircraft are reaching the end of there leases preventing the oversupply of aircraft.

Overall I think this is a good thing for the industry, it lessens the risk of a serious oversupply of seats from the ME3, with QR now the only rapidly expanding airline and also overtime may start to advantage some of the legacy carriers hit by the EK seat explosion as EK focused more on yields and revenue than market share.

Impressive result.

Overall, I agree that it seems that EK has settled into a far more balanced position, with a network that supports itself and does not need significant growth to feed its planes.

QR will likely now continue its catch up game, looking to add destination after destination, often by exploring riskier business propositions (ie. Las Vegas) to achieve it.

At the end of the day, there’s still a fairly turbulent environment to deal with for all airlines, but it is interesting to watch each move play out.

log0008 wrote:

They are lucky that this has occurred when there oldest aircraft are reaching the end of there leases preventing the oversupply of aircraft.

This owes nothing to luck or chance, it's all going according to plan : EK like QR control their expenses & fleet planning very well.

log0008 wrote:

They are lucky that this has occurred when there oldest aircraft are reaching the end of there leases preventing the oversupply of aircraft.

Emirates also deferred new aircraft deliveries up to 6 months.

One of their largest competitors has been (and still is) severely crippled right now. I wonder how much that has helped EK.

Yes it seems they are quick to react. Emirates still has a great market for people wanting to connect from West/East, East/West. It helps Emirates that some European airlines like BA are committing suicide by ruining their service standards while keeping high prices.

KarelXWB wrote:

log0008 wrote:

Good news, maybe 2016 was as bad as it will get.

It certainly seems that EK has recovered very quickly.

The downturn at QR shows why. QR was carrying a ton of *-DOH-DXB traffic that now will fly on EK. Local traffic to the hub is always the most profitable kind. To the extent that bumped out low yield India connects it improves the bottom line in a hurry.

As a point of reference, Emirates Airlines recent annual profits were:

2014 - $1.3B
2015 - $1.9B
2016 - $340m

One factor that is clearly affecting EK's growth (and by no means is the only factor) is the India bilateral. EK needs pax to fill planes to new cities. India has frozen bilateral with UAE for some time now. EK had done a great job of ensuring that it always got more capacity ex India just as other airlines could make the case of starting new routes. With the Indian gov not granting more seats to UAE and Qatar, we finally saw Indian and EU airlines add flights which in turn affects EK's current flights. Look, I think EK will always be strong from India (too much links the two countries). But a business plan that assumed a huge market like India would basically have very few nonstop long haul flights was crazy. Look at China and their nonstop connectivity. India is a joke compared to that. India can only go up form such a low point which will directly affect EK and the ME2. Also EU and US airlines are finally partnering with Indian airlines (DL/AF/VS/KL/9W) being a great example of things to come.

Well done Emirates (again).Their model (one stop to and from 'anywhere') requires a critical mass of destinations to work well.They have this.I am not convinced ME2&3 do.Will be interesting to watch over the next decade.

Emirates is clearly learning from its mistakes. The second half of the financial year profits will be stronger.

The irony is that so much of the cost discipline is DXB maxing out. Oh, we know EK differed aircraft and has taken other cost cutting means. But by limiting growth, EK was focused on transferring money to build DWC.

I'm betting the transition to DWC has been delayed as part of cost Differals.

Obviously the impediments to QR helped.

log0008 wrote:

Good news, maybe 2016 was as bad as it will get. Good to see load factors have grown (they have been falling for a number of years) - maybe there slow down in growth along with EY's is helping.

I do think 2016 was the bottom for fares as long as India and China grow at 4.5%+.

For EK, I think so. Some is the maxing out

mffoda wrote:

As a point of reference, Emirates Airlines recent annual profits were:

2014 - $1.3B
2015 - $1.9B
2016 - $340m

It seems 2017 will almost triple the profit of 2016. They are now at $452 million for the first 6 months and have a few busy months ahead.

Emirates eyes more investments, growth as profits soar

http://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/e ... -1.2121486

dubaiamman243 wrote:

Emirates eyes more investments, growth as profits soar

http://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/e ... -1.2121486

Per your link, fuel is down to 26%. That helps.

But now there is a contradiction. Carefully manage costs while investing... To be blunt, the profits weren't enough to accelerate investing.

Lightsaber

DWC wrote:

log0008 wrote:

They are lucky that this has occurred when there oldest aircraft are reaching the end of there leases preventing the oversupply of aircraft.

This owes nothing to luck or chance, it's all going according to plan : EK like QR control their expenses & fleet planning very well.

I'm in agreeance, if anything QR have the less risky fleet planning. They have aircraft smaller than a 77L.

I still think Airfares will suffer especially UK-Asia. Too many competitors for it to rise probably at least in the medium term.

lightsaber wrote:

The irony is that so much of the cost discipline is DXB maxing out. Oh, we know EK differed aircraft and has taken other cost cutting means

So have TK with the IST/SAW hubs & their fleet management.
So have QR with their DOH hub & fleet management considering the abysmal fly-over embargo next door(s)
( deficit this year could have been much worse without AAB )

These companies are lenient, fast responsive & cost effective.
A model in airline management from that POV
( e.g. FA rosters & contract terms for instance are another matter )

If EK were able to do what they have done in the UK, Australia and NZ, in India and China, they would be twice the size, DWC would be fully funded and fully developed, there would be another 40-50 A380's delivered, IA would have shaped up or shipped out, the Chinese would have rationalised airline brands serving international destinations, and....

The half year profit was always going to be an improvement, because they wrote off anything and everything they could , and that process continues this year.

The result in perspective is little more than one A380, at a time when a near neighbour is severely constrained.

The second half result will be a little better than the first, but next year's results will show the success or otherwise of all the behind the scenes efforts and initiatives, and 2019, global events and acquisitions notwithstanding, will be superlative. STC's swansong.

Planesmart wrote:

If EK were able to do what they have done in the UK, Australia and NZ, in India and China, they would be twice the size, DWC would be fully funded and fully developed, there would be another 40-50 A380's delivered, IA would have shaped up or shipped out, the Chinese would have rationalised airline brands serving international destinations, and....

The half year profit was always going to be an improvement, because they wrote off anything and everything they could , and that process continues this year.

The result in perspective is little more than one A380, at a time when a near neighbour is severely constrained.

The second half result will be a little better than the first, but next year's results will show the success or otherwise of all the behind the scenes efforts and initiatives, and 2019, global events and acquisitions notwithstanding, will be superlative. STC's swansong.

What has EK done in UK, OZ and NZ that it hasn't done in India? India is probably EK's primary source country. The UK/Aus may provide profits on the UK-DXB-OZ runs, but India allowed EK to open up a wide variety of cities. China is actually doing it right, reasonably open aviation with an emphasis on opening up nonstop routes. India has mismanaged aviation and the ME3's hands are not clean in "influencing" various govt officials to implement some of the weirdest aviation rules in the world. Do you feel Indians should route even more of their international traffic through DXB? I don't think India will be granting EK or the ME3 more seats while it is looking to sell AI.