With only the latter two months in its 2019-2020 fiscal year ending March impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Emirates was still able to post a 21% increase in its full-year profit to $287.5 million, up from $237 million year-on-year. It suspended regular passenger flights in March due to COVID-19.
Emirates is the world's largest operator of wide-body jets. It was also the world's fourth-largest airline in 2019 in terms of passenger and freight ton-miles flown.
Emirates and Emirates Group Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said things began to slide starting February as international air travel came to an almost full stop in about one month due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. March cost Emirates dearly with the airline losing $926 million in revenues for this month alone.
Al Maktoum said Emirates was performing strongly for the first 11 months of 2019-20, with the the airline on track to deliver against its business targets. Things changed rapidly and for the worst in mid-February as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden and unprecedented drop in demand for international air travel with countries imposing tough air travel restrictions.
"The COVID-19 pandemic will have a huge impact on our 2020-21 performance, with Emirates' passenger operations, temporarily suspended since 25 March, and businesses similarly affected by the drying up of flight traffic and travel demand all around the world" said Al Maktoum.
"We continue to take aggressive cost management measures and other necessary steps to safeguard our business, while planning for business resumption. We expect it will take 18 months at least, before travel demand returns to a semblance of normality."
Al Maktoum doesn't foresee air travel returning to normal for another 18 months.
He warned COVID-19 will have a major effect on the airline's performance in 2020-21. He also said the months ahead will be the most difficult in the airline's 35-year history.
On the other hand, Emirates Group reported full-year revenue and other operating income of $28.3 billion for 2019-20 compared to $29.8 billion year-on-year. It reported a profit of $463 million, its 32nd straight year of profit. Emirates Group finished the year with a "solid cash balance" of $6.97 billion.
Emirates' total passenger and cargo capacity was reduced by 8% to 58.6 billion available ton kilometers at the end of 2019-20 "due to the DXB runway closure capacity restrictions and COVID-19 impact with a complete suspension of passenger services as directed by the UAE government during March 2020."
