The Emirates Group managed to reduce its loss to US$ one billion in fiscal 2020-21 from six billion a year ago, as the Covid-19 pandemic-related restrictions eased across the world, a company press release said Saturday.
The Group, comprising Emirates airline, dnata and other subsidiaries, revealed the information in its 2021-22 Annual Report on 13 May, 2022.
This shows strong recovery across its businesses. dnata returns to profitability, and significant revenue improvements were reported across both Emirates and dnata as the Group rebuilt its air transport and travel-related operations, which were previously cut-back or curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the financial year ended 31 March 2022, the Group posted a loss of US$ 1.0 billion compared with an US$ 6.0 billion loss for last year. The Group’s revenue was US$ 18.1 billion, an increase of 86 percent over last year’s results. The Group’s cash balance was US$ 7.0 billion, up 30 percent from last year mainly due to strong demand across its core business divisions and markets, triggered by the easing of pandemic-related restrictions.
“This year, we focused on restoring our operations quickly and safely wherever pandemic-related restrictions eased across our markets. Business recovery picked up pace particularly in the second half of the year. Robust customer demand drove a huge improvement in our financial performance compared to our unprecedented losses of last year and we built up our strong cash balance.” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
In 2021-22, Emirates airlines’ total passenger and cargo capacity increased by 47 percent as the airline continued to reinstate passenger services across its network in line with the lifting of pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions. With significantly enhanced capacity deployment across most markets, Emirates’ total revenue for the financial year increased 91% to US$ 16.1 billion.
In this 2nd pandemic year, Emirates SkyCargo, cargo division of Emirates airline once again put in a stellar performance and contributed to 40% of the airline’s total transport revenue .By 30 June 2021, it had restored services to over 90 percent of its pre-pandemic network. With steady and strong air freight demand throughout the year, Emirates’ cargo division reported a new record revenue of US$ 5.9 billion, an increase of 27 percent over last year.
Emirates closed the financial year with solid cash assets of US$ 5.7 billion, 38% higher compared to 31 March 2021.
Recovery from the pandemic was felt across all dnata businesses, and in 2021-22 dnata returned to profitability with a profit of US$ 30 million. dnata’s total revenue increased by 54 percent to US$ 2.3 billion. Its cash balance improved to US$ 1.3 billion.
