Dubai airline Emirates will pay a 22-week bonus to eligible employees after posting a record profit for the past financial year, The National understands.
It was the third consecutive year of record profits for the airline, which has benefitted from rising travel demand and lower fuel costs.
Emirates posted a post-tax profit on Thursday of Dh19.06 billion ($5.2 billion) for the year ended in March, an annual increase of 10.6 per cent, as long-haul travel demand stayed strong despite geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.
Revenue rose by 6 per cent to Dh127.9 billion as the airline carried more than 53.6 million passengers during the fiscal year.
This is also the third year in a row that Emirates has announced hefty bonuses for its staff. Eligible employees received a 20-week bonus last year, and more than 50,000 staff received 24 weeks' pay with their May 2023 salaries.
The airline has also been increasing its workforce. It recorded a 9.5 per cent year-on-year rise to reach 69,465 employees in the last fiscal year, it said on Thursday.
"Since Emirates was established, we’ve returned a profit every year except in 1986-87, and during the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020-21 to 2021-22," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, chairman and chief executive of Emirates airline and group.
For 2024-25, Emirates and dnata announced combined dividends of Dh6 billion for its owner, the Investment Corporation of Dubai.
Last month, Sheikh Ahmed said that if the Dubai government asked the company to list, then he would proceed with it.
"We are very satisfied when it comes to our cash reserves on the airline side," he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
"If they [the Dubai government] say do it [an initial public offering] tomorrow, I have to do it."
The airline, which is retrofitting about 90 per cent of its fleet and has more than 300 aircraft on order, hinted at further plane acquisitions at the Dubai Airshow in November.
