After the coronavirus pandemic rocked the aviation industry, Dubai-based Emirates airline reported a $5.5 billion annual deficit on Tuesday, its first in more than three decades.
“After last year’s 1.1 billion dirhams ($288 million) profit, the airline posted a loss of 20.3 billion dirhams ($5.5 billion) due to ongoing pandemic-related flight and travel limitations,” the Middle East’s largest carrier said in a statement.
The airline’s revenue dropped 66 percent to $8.4 billion after it was forced to temporarily halt operations last year.
Emirates carried 6.6 million passengers during its fiscal year, which ends in March, dropping 88 percent from the same period the previous year.
The airline’s chairman and chief executive, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said in a statement that “the Covid-19 pandemic continues to take a devastating toll on human lives, communities, economies, and the aviation and tourism sector.”
He went on to say that the Emirates group had been “seriously affected” by the reduction in demand for international aviation travel as governments closed their borders and tightened travel restrictions.
