Dubai’s Emirates has no plans for an IPO – Sheikh Ahmed

Dubai airline Emirates has no plans to launch an IPO anytime soon, the airline’s chairman and CEO has confirmed.

While preparations get underway for the massive Aramco IPO in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum stressed that the airline – arguably Dubai’s biggest home-grown global brand – has no immediate plans to list.

“Emirates is not Aramco, they are completely different. When you think about airlines, it is one of the toughest businesses, it is not as easy as a lot of people think – just have planes, pay them and fly them. It is not easy,” Sheikh Ahmed told reporters at the Dubai Air Show.

Emirates recently posted a whopping 282 per cent rise in net profit for the first half of its fiscal year 2019-2020, on the back of reduced costs.

The airline said its net profit during the six-month period reached Dhs862m ($235m), up 282 per cent, compared to Dhs226m during the same period last year.

Improved profit came on the back of reduced operating costs, which shrunk by 8 per cent against the overall capacity decrease of 7 per cent.

On average, fuel costs were 13 per cent lower compared to the same period last year, largely due to a decrease in oil prices.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates posts 282% rise in first half net profit as fuel costs drop

The outlook for the second half of the year also looks promising, Sheikh Ahmed told reporters.

“I hope it [good results] will continue for the rest of the fiscal year – that’s what we see, based on the forward bookings,” he said.

“Headwinds are there all the time, but we expect them and deal with them. It will be tough, but we are confident that this year we are doing better than what we budgeted for,” he added.

Also read: Emirates revises Airbus order, signs $16bn deal for 50 A350s