By Vincenzo Claudio Piscopo
Emirates Nearly Tripled Passenger Tally, Doubled Revenue in 2021-2022 Year
Emirates, the Dubai-based flag carrier airline of the Arab Emirate of Dubai, part of The Emirates Group owned by the Government of Dubai, two days ago published its financial year 2021-2022 results on its official website. According to the report, Emirates’ total passenger and cargo capacity increased by 47%, restoring passenger services throughout its network after the lifting of flight and travel restrictions imposed during the previous two pandemic years.
At the beginning of the financial year, Emirates grew from 120 destinations to more than 140 as of March 31, 2022. In addition, in July, the airline launched a new route to Miami, bringing its destinations to the U.S. to 12, joining Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Washington, New York, Boston, Toronto and Chicago. Emirates is the airline with the highest number of Airbus A380s in its fleet (115 operational and five in delivery) and in 2021-2022 increased its network of A380-operated routes to 29 destinations.
It also phased out two older aircraft, one Boeing 777-300ER and one freighter, leaving the total fleet at 262 aircraft at the end of March. The average age of Emirates’ fleet remains 8.2 years. As for Emirates’ orders, the number remains unchanged at 197 aircraft.
Emirates has also expanded its interline and codeshare partnerships in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. It has agreements with Aeromar, airBaltic, Airlink, Azul, Cemair, Garuda Indonesia, Gulf Air, Maldivian, South African Airways, Royal Air Maroc and TAP Air Portugal. Emirates this year announced a major retrofit program to equip 120 of its 777 and A380 aircraft with new Premium Economy seats and the latest cabin interiors.
In this second year of the pandemic, Emirates’ cargo section, Emirates SkyCargo, contributed 40 percent of the airline’s total cargo revenues, holding steady among the top 5 cargo airlines in the world. Emirates SkyCargo started operations in October 1985, the same year Emirates was formed and its fleet consists of 10 Boeing 777F aircraft.
Revenues and Statistics
Emirates’ total revenues for the financial year increased 91% to $16.1 billion. Total operating costs increased by 30% from last financial year due to cost of ownership (depreciation and amortization), fuel cost, and personnel cost. Fuel accounted for 23 percent of operating costs compared to 14 percent in 2020-21, doubling from the previous year to $3.8 billion, due to a higher average fuel price, which increased by 75%.
In the year spanning 2021 and 2022, Emirates carried 19.6 million passengers — up 199% — with seat capacity increased by 150%. The airline recorded a Passenger Seat Factor of 58.6%, up from 44.3% in 2020-21. The airline managed to improve all of its financial results compared to the Pre-Covid-19 period and recorded a loss of $1.1 billion. These results are much better considering that the previous year’s loss was $5.5 billion.
Vincenzo graduated in 2019 in Mechanical Engineering with an aeronautical curriculum, focusing his thesis on Human Factors in aircraft maintenance. Currently, he is pursuing his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy. He combines his journalistic activities with his work as a Safety and Reliability Engineer at DMD Solutions.