Qatar Airways Revealed The airline announced its financial results for fiscal year 2023-2024 (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024) which are highly impressive, being the best in the airline’s 27-year history. This comes on the heels of the airline reporting record revenues the previous year, and record profits the year before that.
Qatar Airways Financial Results 2023-2024
It’s been a tough year for Qatar Airways. In some ways, this was the first “normal” year for the airline since the pandemic began and since Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2022. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how Qatar Airways will perform in the 2023-2024 financial year.
- Qatar Airways reported net profit of $1.7 billion, down from $1.21 billion a year earlier.
- Qatar Airways reported revenue of $22.2 billion, the highest in the airline’s history, compared with $21 billion a year earlier.
- Qatar Airways carried 40 million passengers, compared with 31.7 million the previous year.
- Qatar Airways’ average load factor was 83%, up from 80% a year earlier.
- Qatar Airways saw a 19% increase in passenger revenue and a 21% increase in seat capacity.
- Qatar Airways achieved EBITDA margin of 24% to $5.2 billion, up $300 million on the previous year.
Commenting on the results, Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer said:
“These extremely strong financial positions are testament to the ambition and clear direction that has underpinned Qatar Airways Group’s progress throughout 2023/24.”
“Our continued focus on profitability, efficiency and customer experience, underpinned by a strategic program of network and fleet expansion, has resulted in the highest revenues and profitability in airline history, solidifying our role as a key industry leader and maintaining our position as the airline of choice for millions of passengers around the world.”
“This fantastic achievement is thanks to the collective efforts of everyone across the Qatar Airways Group, who have worked tirelessly to achieve such stellar results. We must build on this foundation and continue to build on our success in the future.”
As for Al Meer, his successor to long-time CEO Akbar Al Baker has arguably been the best thing that has happened to Qatar Airways in the last year. Al Meer has done a fantastic job of bringing humanity back into the management of the airline and has done a great deal to boost staff morale, which will hopefully translate into even better results in the long run.
My take on Qatar Airways’ financial results
In my opinion, Qatar Airways is really starting to come into its own post-pandemic. The airline managed to maintain global connectivity during the pandemic when other airlines could not, and has maintained that momentum in recent months.
Needless to say, Qatar Airways’ results are impressive. The airline has broken company records in almost every respect: revenue, profits, load factor, etc. The only thing that hasn’t essentially improved is revenue, but this is standard as virtually all airlines experience a slight decline in revenue as they add capacity.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that Qatar Airways is noticeably less profitable than its biggest rival, Emirates, which reported profits of $4.7 billion last year, making it one of the most profitable airlines in the world. But Emirates is much larger, carries about 25% more passengers, and generates about 50% more revenue.
I will also admit that writing about the financial performance of Gulf airlines always raises the question of whether this is all just fictitious calculations, given that the Gulf airlines are state-owned companies. After all, going back a few years, US airlines spent millions of dollars campaigning to convince us that these were all heavily subsidized, money-burning airlines (and then changed their tune).
Yes, these results are accurate and independently audited in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, but there is no denying that for an airline like Qatar Airways, some calculations differ from many other airlines.
- Qatar Airways is a state-owned company, which has made it easier for it to raise attractive capital, enabling it to become the airline it is today.
- Qatar Airways has significantly lower operating costs than other airlines because the airports, ground staff, catering companies etc. are essentially all under the same owner.
Therefore, comparing the financial performance of U.S. airlines with Gulf airlines is not really an apples-to-apples comparison: U.S. airlines have far more lucrative revenue opportunities, but also far higher costs.
Conclusion
Qatar Airways has reported its financial results for the last fiscal year, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. The airline group achieved record highs in revenue, profits and load factors. Airlines around the world are performing roughly as well as ever, with demand for international travel showing no signs of slowing.
What do you think about Qatar Airways’ performance?