Emirates Reports Record $4.7 Billion Profit, 14.2% Margin

They need to add ATL. If Qatar and Turkish can do it successfully no reason Emirates can’t.

Lol definitely not real.

I’d be curious to know their load-factor in J, given the underwhelming and overpriced product.

There is really just one number that explains why Emirates is where it is financially: USD 70.172 - the average compensation per employee.
In contrast, Delta (with the highest employee costs of large employees) paid its employees on average $146,070 including benefits other than profit sharing and $13,830 on average in profit sharing.

In fact, not a single other large global airline in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan or S. Korea pays its employees as little as Emirates does.

Not hard to see how a company is as successful as they are when they pay a fraction of the employee costs of other large airlines from developed countries.

How about looking at after tax pay?

Weird dig at Delta towards the end just bc y'all are bothered by one commenter.

I think Delta can be praised for a lot more than just profitability compared to Emirates. Let's look at the human rights track records in those countries before we start yapping.

It's a shame that Ben basically ignores all the blatant human rights violations that go on in that region, especially ones that would affect him personally.

what companies spend on payroll, benefits and taxes is relevant based on each country's social systems.

DL employees are paid the most in gross and undoubtedly after tax as well.

And remember my comparison is for airline and subsidiary employees. EK breaks out dnata employees. DL does some ground handling but I can assure you that dnata employees are paid well below the average for EK's airline employees.

EK employees simply make much less in salary and benefits. You only need to look at the origin of most of their cabin crew to know that, while they are very good, they come heavily from countries that don't support high pay.

EK simply uses the cruise ship employee model for an airline.

Ben is obsessed with trying to generate page clicks through controversy because he can't produce content that people want to read by just talking about all of these foreign airlines that he holds in such high esteem.

Too much competition. They won't add it.

GET LOST YOU WHINING TROLL!!!! Stop claiming this and this without justifying that. I hope you drop out and drop dead out of the airlock. Jealous freeloader.

While Emirates' average cash compensation for employees is quite low compared to other western airlines, the airline also offers a lot of benefits for its employees which are extremely valuable. This includes free housing in Dubai for all crew members and free transportation to the airport when they are working. This means they don't have to live in another city and commute to work. One of the biggest financial burdens of housing/accomodation is gone. Additionally, Emirates employees also get a lot of soft benefits in the country. Pilots get luxury housing, and their children's school tuition is paid for by EK. The salary doesn't have anything taken away from taxes. And food in Dubai isn't as expensive as it is in the West, so theoretically people can live on less money in Dubai than most developed western countries (when you take away the housing cost). And Emirates' pay for its staff (including ground staff at Dubai) is still much better than what similar jobs will pay for a majority of their staff's country of origin.

While all of these perks may cost Emirates less than what Delta spends on compensation for its employees, for the market Emirates is based in, the compensation and benefits are quite attractive for certain people from certain countries. You wouldn't be able to compare Emirates average of 70K with Delta's 146K like it's apples to apples. With EK's benefits and tax exemptions, not sure which airline's average compensation is bigger (I'm not familiar with the Dubai housing market), but I think it is worth pointing out.

I don't think there is much demand left for EK to capture that isn't already fulfilled by Qatar and Turkish. I used to live in Atlanta. Atlanta has quite a large South Asian population, in addition to a good number of people from other countries well served by Qatar and Turkish. However, the demand has a limit, and I believe the current capacity by Qatar and Turkish is near the maximum Atlanta can currently sustain. Turkish only flies 1x per day on a 787 (not 777, meaning there isn't demand for it). Qatar flips between the A350-900, 777-200LR, and occasionally a 777-300ER. However, ATL is Qatar's poorest performing US route. And both airlines, in addition to Emirates, won't have any unique connectivity opportunities to ATL (just flights on their partners to their hub cities, to which they already fly nonstop to).

Now that Ethiopian is starting flights to Atlanta, I don't think Emirates will be able to sustain a flight to ATL, at least not right now until the market grows.

it's actually pretty obvious.

I don't post for a week and Ben is doing all he can to stir up Delta controversy

of course all of those benefits cost EK a lot of money - and they are what EK has to offer in order to attract people to work for it.
And, yes, you can compare compensation based on the fact that EK competes for the same international passengers as the big US/EU and NE Asia legacy global airlines.

EK uses the cruise ship model of hiring people from less affluent countries to serve passengers from high income countries.
It isn't a surprise that the Middle East airlines, including Turkish, have high profit margins.

Their employees don't begin to enjoy income on the levels of Americans, Europeans, Japanese or S. Koreans.

There is no income tax in Dubai. Zero percent. There are no ongoing real estate taxes after the initial 4% levy when buying a property. The consumption tax rate is a flat 5%.

Does your Emirates average wage data factor in their bonuses? Those are pretty sizable.

Just curious.

the numbers come right from each carrier's most recent annual report.
Since EK's compensation per employee (average) is half of DL's, the recent bonus won't make enough of a difference.

Okay, several wrong arguments going on. Just stick to the facts. No reason to bring DL into the post @Ben. Also no reason to bring human rights into the conversation about EK financial performance.

Let’s just focus on aviation facts.

Tim, I like your reasoning for this post, but the info from @JB seems to override your arguments. And you didn’t really address JB’s points. If indeed you consider those cost as part of EK’s overhead, doesn’t that make their financial performance more notable?

PS - Tim, again, mostly agree with your logic, and I admire DL’s performance, but as @JB wrote, it’s not an apples to apples comparison…another reason that the DL reference in the post was unfortunate (but sly!)

Hard to separate those things out when EK is a government owned entity. And their government follows Sharia law and oppresses minority groups and women.

It's like saying, just focus on the fact that Jeffrey Epstein was a financially successful billionaire, but ignore all the sex trafficking and crimes.

Wouldn't be surprised in the near future when they start ATL, PHL, DEN or even DTW with the A359s or the doubtful 787s.

Leigh
when you compete in the same markets for the same revenue, you are competitors whether you or anyone wants to admit it or not.

EK has built an airline based on using foreign-sourced labor and that is true of most of the Middle East including the UAE. The actual number of native UAE citizens that produce the GDP of that country is small. Nearly all of the foreigners that do the work in the UAE make less than they could make doing the same job in other countries if they could work in other countries.

EK's model is competing for the same passengers from western countries with lower labor costs.

It is not a surprise that they have higher margins because, like the rest of the UAE and other parts of the Middle East, their employees fare worse than employees in the countries where their primary amounts of revenue is sourced - Europe, the US, Australia and Northeast Asia.

It is absolutely fair to consider ALL costs that it takes to support employees at any company.
US and European airlines don't provide many of the "benefits" that EK provides because they don't have to.
And many companies in the Middle East provide similar benefits because that is what it takes to get people to work for a foreign company.

EK is simply using the same model of the region to use imported labor to enrich the economy and its companies.

did you notice that EK had graphs in its annual report talking about the percentages of women in its workforce?
They are pretty proud of the number of women in their workforce.

United is one of the few western airlines that have a similar chart - and they included other demographic groups - mostly racial and gender subdivisions.

When you need to prove to the world how much you are doing to "help the world", you virtual signal.

On other airlines, you simply can tell by walking through the terminal how many employees there are of various races and genders and they aren't treated or seen as being any different.
When you treat people differently, you almost always fail. If you choose people from the entire pool of humanity, you come up w/ a diverse, competent and sustainably diverse workforce.

I enjoyed reading the One Mile At A Time article about the 23/24 profit of Emirates Airline.
At the end of the article, it was mentioned that Emirates is closing in upon the profit of Delta.
However, in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article of 12 January 2024 about Delta Airline's revenue for 2023 , it states their profit was $4.6 billion, whereas the profit of Emirates Airline for the past 12 months was
$ 4.7 billion?