Dubai, UAE, July 11, 2025 – Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, has topped the rankings as YouGov’s Most Recommended Global Brand for 2025, a testament to the airline’s longstanding ‘Fly Better’ promise. Emirates is the only airline to be featured on the global top 10 list.

The YouGov Most Recommended Brands rankings measure the percentage of a brand’s customers who would recommend it to a friend or colleague. This year, Emirates achieved an outstanding score of 88.4%, with a significant lead on the next closest brand. Fuelled by insights from YouGov BrandIndex, Recommend scores are based on over a million customer surveys in 28 markets, tracking brand performance daily between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. Positive Recommend scores for each top 10 global brand are aggregated and weighted by the size of the brand’s current customer base per market.

Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline, said, “This recognition underscores the deep connection and loyalty we’ve built with passengers all over the world, who trust us not only to get them to their destination, but to do so with care, reliability, and excellence.  We will continue to evolve our already exceptional experience and set new benchmarks in travel to ensure Emirates is always a brand that our customers are proud to recommend.”

Emirates has always kept customers at the heart of its operations, providing memorable journeys at every touchpoint, every time. Continually investing in the finest products and exceptional signature services, the airline provides a world-class travel experience in-air and on-ground.

In the first half of 2025, Emirates expanded its global network with route launches to three new destinations, with Hangzhou to follow; inaugurated nine reimagined travel retail stores in Asia, Africa and Europe; introduced its newest aircraft type, the A350, to 10 destinations; and achieved its designation as the world’s first Autism Certified Airline™, making significant headway on its journey to make travel accessible to all.

And Emirates shows no signs of slowing down.

By December 2025, the airline will serve over 70 cities with aircraft fitted out with the latest interiors on Boeing 777s, A380s and A350s, representing almost 50% of its network, and offer over 2 million Premium Economy seats, enabling more travellers to enjoy Emirates’ latest generation premium onboard experience.

Emirates has been recognised by YouGov before, as the most recommended brand in the UAE in the Recommend 2024 rankings with a score of 92.6. In YouGov’s 2024 US airlines report, Emirates recorded the “most satisfied customers amongst US flyers” and was one of the top 10 airlines considered by US Millennials and Gen Zs. As an international online research data and analytics firm, YouGov pioneers accessible and neutral market research and consumer interest surveys, utilising its flagship tracking tool, YouGov BrandIndex.

Karachi, UAE, 8 May 2025 – The Emirates Group today released its 2024-25 Annual Report, achieving new record profit, EBITDA, revenue, and cash balance levels. This outstanding performance places the Emirates Group as the most profitable aviation group globally in the 2024-25 reporting period, with Emirates reporting the best result in its history to become the world’s most profitable airline.
Emirates earns its place as the world’s most profitable airline, reporting:

• record profit before tax of AED 21.2 billion (US$ 5.8 billion), up 20% from last year
• record revenue of AED 127.9 billion (US$ 34.9 billion), an increase of 6% over last year
• highest-ever level of cash assets at AED 49.7 billion (US$ 13.5 billion), 16% higher compared to 31 March 2024
  This is the first financial year that the UAE corporate tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group. After accounting for the 9% tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED 20.5 billion (US$ 5.6 billion).
  HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates airline and Group said:

“It is no accident that Dubai has produced hugely successful global aviation entities including Emirates and dnata. Dubai’s aviation sector has become an influential force on the global stage thanks to visionary leaders, strategic planning, co-ordinated execution, and strong support from our customers, business partners, and all the people of Dubai.
“When the government set up Emirates 40 years ago and we began expanding dnata’s capabilities to support the city’s growth, we had a clear mission – be the best at what we do; and deliver value to Dubai, our stakeholders, and the communities we serve.
“With that in mind, we’ve kept a laser focus on providing great products and services, and we continually invest in technology and talent to increase our competitive edge. We look after our people and our customers, and we work hard to positively impact our communities. We don’t cut corners, and we don’t take shortcuts that put our future at risk for short term gains. By building our business models around these principles and Dubai’s unique strengths, the Emirates Group has thrived and stayed resilient through geo-political and socio-economic challenges over the years.”
HH Sheikh Ahmed added:
“For 2024-25, the Emirates Group has raised the bar to set new records for profit, revenue, and cash assets.” Emirates will strengthen its network connectivity with the expected delivery of 16 A350s and 4 Boeing 777 freighters in 2025-26.

To read the full press release, visit: https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/annual-report-2024-25/
Annual report media fact sheet: Media Fast Facts_Annual Report 2024-25

Karachi, 07 November 2024: The Emirates Group today announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion (US$ 2.8 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, surpassing its record profit before tax for the same period last year.

This is the first financial year that the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group. After accounting for the 9% tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion (USD 2.5 billion).

Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED 20.4 billion (US$ 5.6 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion (US$ 5.6 billion) last year.

Group revenue was AED 70.8 billion (US$ 19.3 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5% from AED 67.3 billion (US$ 18.3 billion) last year. This reflects the consistently strong customer demand across business divisions, and across regions.

The Group closed the first half year of 2024-25 with a solid cash position of AED 43.7 billion (US$ 11.9 billion) on 30 September 2024, compared to AED 47.1 billion (US$ 12.8 billion) on 31 March 2024. The Group has been able to tap on its own strong cash reserves to support business needs, including payments for new freighter aircraft orders and other debt payments. The Group also paid AED 2 billion in dividend to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2023-24 financial year.

His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “The Group has surpassed its record performance of last year to deliver a fantastic result for the first half of 2024-25. This again illustrates the power of our proven business model working in combination with Dubai’s growth trajectory as a city of choice to live, work, visit, connect through, and do business in.

“The Group’s strong profitability enables us to make the investments necessary for our continued success. We’re investing billions of dollars to bring new products and services to the market for our customers; to implement advanced technologies and other innovation projects to drive growth; and to look after our employees who work hard every day to ensure our customers’ safety and satisfaction.”

HH Sheikh Ahmed added: “We expect customer demand to remain strong for the rest of 2024-25, and we look forward to increasing our capacity to grow revenues as new aircraft join the Emirates fleet and new facilities come online at dnata. The outlook is positive, but we don’t intend to rest on our laurels. We will stay agile in deploying our capacity and resources in a dynamic marketplace.”

To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2024, grew 3% to an overall count of 114,610 on 30 September 2024. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements.

Emirates airline

Emirates continued to enhance its network and increase connectivity options through its Dubai hub. During the first half of 2024-25, Emirates increased scheduled flights to 8 cities: Amsterdam, Cebu, Clark, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Manila and Singapore.

In May, Emirates restarted daily services to Phnom Penh in Cambodia via Singapore. In June, it launched daily services to Bogotá via Miami, expanding the airline’s South American presence to Colombia. In September, Emirates opened a new route to Madagascar via the Seychelles – taking its passenger and cargo network to 148 airports in 80 countries by 30 September.

Expanding connectivity options for customers, during the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates entered into new agreements with 7 codeshare, interline, and intermodal partners: AirPeace, Avianca, BLADE, ITA Airways, Iceland Air, SNCF Railway, and Viva Aerobus.

Between 1 April and 30 September, 8 aircraft (3 A380s, 5 Boeing 777s) with fully refreshed interiors rolled out of the airline’s US$ 4 billion retrofit programme. This enabled Emirates to accelerate the deployment of its latest cabin products, including its latest 4-class Boeing 777 that feature a new 1-2-1 layout of lie-flat seats with personal minibars in Business Class, and the popular Emirates Premium Economy.

The first retrofitted Emirates 777 was deployed to Geneva in August, followed by Tokyo Haneda and Brussels. For the next six months, as more aircraft are retrofitted, Emirates has lined up 10 more routes for its refurbished 777s: Riyadh, Zurich, Kuwait, Damman, Chicago, Boston, Dallas Fort Worth, Seattle, Newark-Athens and Miami-Bogota.

By year end, Emirates’ latest A380 and Boeing 777 inflight experiences including Premium Economy, will be available to customers on over 30 routes.

On ground, AED 44 million was invested to open new signature Emirates Lounges for premium customers in London Stansted and Jeddah airports, and refurbish the existing facility at Paris Charles De Gaulle. This is part of an ongoing multi-million dollar programme to enhance its network of owned Emirates Lounges. In July, Emirates opened a new concept travel store in Hong Kong, its first outside of the UAE, and it plans to launch more experiential stores around its network as part of its retail strategy.

Emirates continued to progress on its environmental initiatives, uplifting sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) where available and feasible. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates uplifted SAF for the first time in Singapore and London Heathrow.

Emirates joined the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy (aireg) in Germany; and signed up as industry partner of the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA) at the University of Cambridge, contributing to the research and development of emissions reduction pathways. The AIA partnership also marked Emirates’ first disbursement from its US$ 200 million fund, specifically set aside to support R&D to advance sustainability solutions for aviation.

In the first half of 2024-25, Emirates boosted investments in its global brand visibility notably signing a significant new sponsorship deal to be Official Airline Partner of The Championships – Wimbledon. Emirates also extended its longstanding partnerships with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a further 8 years, and with Portugal’s SL Benfica football club for another 5 years.

Overall capacity during the first six months of the year increased by 5% to 29.9 billion Available Tonne Kilometres (ATKM) due to expanded flight operations. Capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKM), increased by 4%, whilst passenger traffic carried measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKM) was up by 2% with an average Passenger Seat Factor of 80.0%, compared with 81.5% during the same period last year. Emirates carried 26.9 million passengers between 1 April and 30 September 2024, up 3% from the same period last year.

Emirates SkyCargo transported 1,198,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, up 16% compared to the same period last year, with notable volume contributions from strong Chinese eCommerce traffic, and a rise in shipments bound for Dubai.

Emirates SkyCargo was able to meet demand with added capacity from 1 new Boeing 777 freighter delivered, and 2 additional wet-leased Boeing 747Fs. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates placed orders for 10 additional Boeing 777 freighters to support its growth.

Strong customer demand for Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised products and excellent network of freighter and bellyhold cargo operations saw cargo yields increase by 11%.

Emirates profit before tax for the first half of 2024-25 hit a new record of AED 9.7 billion (US$ 2.6 billion), compared to AED 9.5 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) for the same period last year. Emirates profit after tax is AED 8.7 billion (US$ 2.4 billion).

Emirates revenue, including other operating income, of AED 62.2 billion (US$ 16.9 billion) was up 5% compared with AED 59.5 billion (US$ 16.2 billion) for the same period last year. The airline’s new record revenue can be attributed to consistently strong travel and air cargo demand across markets, and its ability to offer customers great value and services.

Emirates’ direct operating costs (including fuel) grew by 6% in line with increased operations. Fuel remains the largest component of the airline’s operating cost (32%), compared to 34% in the same period last year.

Driven by customer demand and increased operations during the six months, Emirates’ EBITDA of AED 19.1 billion (US$ 5.2 billion) remained very strong, although slightly down by 2% compared to AED 19.5 billion (US$ 5.3 billion) for the same period last year.

dnata

dnata saw strong growth in the first six months of 2024-25, as it continued to ramp up operations across its cargo and ground handling, catering and retail, and travel services businesses.

In the first half of 2024-25, dnata’s airport services and catering and retail divisions won several significant new contracts, and grew existing customers across its international operations. This shows dnata’s ability to serve the diverse requirements of its airline customers with high safety standards and consistently high-quality products and services.

dnata continued to make strategic investments in its business to respond to customer needs and tap on market prospects. Highlights in the first half of 2024-25 include: the expansion of its USA footprint with the launch of ground handling operations at Raleigh-Durham International airport; the signing of significant deals for new ground support equipment (GSE) estimated at a total value of over US$ 210 million over their lifespan; and the planned 50% increase in cargo handling capacity in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional warehouse capacity.

dnata also progressed its environmental agenda to reduce emissions, with investments to transition its entire fleet of non-electric airside vehicles and GSEs in the UAE to biodiesel, and the addition of more electric GSEs to its Brazil and UAE operations.

dnata’s revenue, including other operating income, of AED 10.4 billion (US$ 2.8 billion) increased by 11% compared to AED 9.3 billion (US$ 2.5 billion) generated in the same period last year.

Overall profit before tax for dnata is AED 720 million (US$ 196 million), down by 5% from the same period last year, primarily due to a one-off impairment charge of AED 152 million. dnata’s profit after tax is AED 571 million (US$ 156 million).

Illustrating its operating profitability, dnata’s EBITDA was AED 1.3 billion (US$ 354 million), up 16% from last year’s AED 1.1 billion (US$ 305 million).

dnata’s airport operations remains the largest contributor to revenue with AED 4.8 billion (US$ 1.3 billion), a 15% increase compared to the same period last year, as its airline customers’ operations continued to pick up particularly in Australia, Singapore, the UAE and UK. Across its operations, the number of aircraft turns handled by dnata increased by 2% to 391,365, and it recorded 1.5 million tonnes of cargo handled, up by 18% due to the buoyant demand for air cargo services globally.

dnata’s flight catering and retail operations, contributed AED 3.7 billion (US$ 1.0 billion) to its revenue, up 8% with catering production increases in Australia and the UK to meet customer demand, as well as the growth of its retail product as part of the division’s strategy, and the positive impact of revised contracts to reflect rising supply costs. The overall number of meals uplifted decreased by 5% to 62.7 million meals compared to last year’s 66.3 million meals.

dnata’s travel division contributed AED 1.8 billion (US$ 483 million) to revenue, up 23% compared to AED 1.4 billion (US$ 391 million) for the same period last year, with strong contributions from its Imagine Cruising, Destination Asia and Middle East Corporate Travel businesses. The division reported an underlying total transactional value (TTV) sales of AED 4.5 billion (US$ 1.2 billion), compared to AED 4.1 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) for the same period last year.