DUBAI – Dubai-based Emirates airline today posted a US$5.5 billion (RM22.6 billion) annual loss, its first in more than three decades, after the coronavirus pandemic devastated the aviation industry.
“Due to ongoing pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions, the airline reported a loss of 20.3 billion dirhams (US$5.5 billion) after last year’s 1.1 billion dirhams (US$288 million) profit,” the Middle East’s largest carrier said in a statement.
The airline, which was forced to temporarily suspend operations last year, saw revenue fall 66% to US$8.4 billion.
Over the fiscal year, which ends in March, Emirates carried 6.6 million passengers, down 88% from the same period in the previous year.
“The Covid-19 pandemic continues to take a tremendous toll on human lives, communities, economies, and on the aviation and travel industry,” the airline’s chairman and chief executive, Sheikh Ahmed Saeed Al Maktoum, said in a statement.
He added that the Emirates group was “hit hard by the drop in demand for international air travel as countries closed their borders and imposed stringent travel restrictions”. – AFP, June 15, 2021
