Emirates posts first annual loss in over 30 years

Emirates airline, the world's largest long-haul carrier, on Tuesday reported a loss of Dh20.3 billion after last year’s Dh1.1 billion profit, and a negative profit margin of 65.6 per cent. This is their first loss in 30 years due to the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the airline and aviation industry.
With significantly reduced and constrained capacity deployment across most markets, Emirates’ total revenue declined 66 per cent to Dh30.9 billion.

Emirates posted its second annual loss since its inception over three decades ago, as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the travel industry, but the airline vowed to return "stronger than before", its chairman and chief executive said.

The Dubai-based carrier reported a Dh20.3 billion ($5.5bn) loss for its fiscal year ending March 31, compared with an annual profit of Dh1.1bn in the previous period, it said on Tuesday. The only other time the carrier posted a loss was in its 1987-1988 fiscal year after its founding in 1985.

"Economies and companies that entered pandemic times in a strong position, will be better placed to bounce back," Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said.

"Our top priorities throughout the year were: the health and wellbeing of our people and customers, preserving cash and controlling costs, and restoring our operations safely and sustainably,” he said.

Emirates last year received a capital injection of Dh11.3 billion from the Government of Dubai.
In addition, dnata tapped various industry support programmes and availed a total relief of nearly Dh800 million in 2020-21.

“These helped us sustain operations and retain the vast majority of our talent pool. Unfortunately, we still had to make the difficult decision to resize our workforce in line with reduced operational requirements."