Dubai's national airline Emirates made a loss in the first half of its fiscal year for the first time in more than 30 years, in large part because of the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global aviation industry.
It said it made a 12.6bn dirham ($3.4bn) loss in the six months to the end of September, compared with a profit of Dh862mn in the corresponding period a year earlier.
"We began our current financial year amid a global lockdown when air passenger traffic was at a literal standstill," the company's chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said. Passenger numbers fell by 95pc to 1.5mn in the period from 30mn a year earlier, while overall capacity — measured in available tonne kilometres (ATK) — declined by 67pc to 9.8bn. Capacity — measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) — shrunk by 91pc year-on year, and passenger traffic carried — measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) — was down by 96pc.
The airline's revenue fell by 75pc to Dh11.7bn in the first half of the financial year, from Dh47.3bn a year earlier. Revenue was mainly supported by the continuation of air freight services. Although cargo volumes were down by 35pc, to around 785,000t from 1.201mn t during April-September 2019, cargo yields more than doubled over the same period.
The UAE's general civil aviation authority began suspending flights from initial Covid-19 hotspots like China and Iran as early as the first week of February, and imposed a full suspension on all inbound and outbound passenger flights from 25 March. Select repatriation flights from the UAE and air cargo continued to operate, and Dubai began to ease its restrictions in late-June ahead of a full re-opening from 7 July.
As of 30 September, Emirates was operating passenger flights and cargo services to 104 destinations. But it is unlikely see "a steep recovery" in travel demand until a Covid-19 vaccine is available, Sheikh Ahmed said.
To help mitigate the slump in passenger demand during this crisis, Dubai's crown prince Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum in March pledged an equity injection for the airline. Sheikh Ahmed said the airline's shareholder had injected $2bn in funding into Emirates in the first half of the 2020-21 financial year.
