As demand for international travel was boosted by governments easing pandemic-related curbs, Dubai’s Emirates airline posted a decrease in losses, which amounted to 3.9 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion), a sharp improvement on the $5.5 billion loss in the previous year.
The airline said in a statement on Friday that revenue soared 91 percent to 59.2 billion dirhams. However, currency fluctuations impacted its profitability negatively by 348 million dirhams, it added.
As the airline expanded global capacity and reinstated more passenger flights, it carried
19.6 million passengers, up by nearly 200 percent in 2021-22, with seat capacity up by 150 percent.
Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said the group expects to return to profitability in 2022-23 and was keeping a close watch on headwinds such as high fuel prices, inflation, new Covid-19 variants, and political and economic uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the Emirates Group also narrowed its loss to 3.8 billion dirhams from 22.1 billion dirhams loss for last year. Airport services provider Dnata recorded a profit of 110 million dirhams from a loss of 1.8 billion in the previous year.
In 2021-22, the group invested 7.9 billion dirhams in new aircraft and facilities. The airline said its order book of 197 aircraft “remains unchanged at this time”.
