Emirates Airline Reveals Extent Of Coronavirus Damage To Its Business

Emirates airline took in $3.1bn of government assistance and let almost a third of its staff go during the Covid-19 pandemic, but even those tough measures could not prevent the group posting a loss of $6bn for the year to the end of March.

In results released today, the Dubai-based company reported a 66% fall in total revenue to AED35.6 ($9.7bn) and a loss of AED22.1bn ($6bn).

The largest part of the group is the Emirates airline business, which reported a 66% fall in revenue to AED30.9bn and a loss of AED20.3bn. The smaller ground-handling division, Dnata, reported a 62% fall in revenue to AED5.5bn and a loss of AED1.8bn.

The results for what is one of the world’s leading long-haul carriers highlights the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic to the global aviation sector.

The airline carried 88% fewer passengers in 2020-21, at 6.6m, and only managed to fill 44% of the seats on the flights it did operate (compared to a pre-pandemic figure of 79%). It also had to pay out AED8.5bn in customer refunds.

Government aid

Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said the airline had received $3.1bn in support from the Dubai government – $1.1bn more than previously known about – which “helped us sustain operations and retain the vast majority of our talent pool”.

Even so, tens of thousands of staff were let go, leaving it with 75,145 employees at year-end. It was the first time in the group’s history that redundancies were carried out across all parts of the business. Overall the group cut AED 7.7bn from its cost base.

The one positive note in the results was in the airline’s freight operations, which saw revenues rise 53% to AED17.1bn, even though the total tonnage carried fell by 22% – the difference is explaind by the significantly reduced cargo capacity worldwide as a result of so many passenger flights being cancelled, which drove up prices.

Having grounded its fleet at the height of the pandemic, the airline is now flying again to 120 destinations. Sheikh Ahmed said “We aim to recover to our full operating capacity as quickly as possible,” but he acknowledged “No one knows when the pandemic will be over, but we know recovery will be patchy.”