Emirates Group profit drops 28% on Covid-19

Dubai

EMIRATES Group, which operates the world's largest long-haul carrier, reported a 28 per cent decline in full-year profit as the impact of the coronavirus cut into earnings in March.

Net income for the year ended March 31 fell to 1.7 billion dirhams (S$653.9 million) from 2.3 billion dirhams year ago, according to a statement. Revenue dropped to 104 billion dirhams, impacted by the Dubai International airport runway closure in the first quarter and Covid-19 pandemic in the fourth quarter.

The March results were "severely impacted" by the suspension of flights following the lockdown by countries due to the spread of the coronavirus, it said.

Profit for the month was more than 1.5 billion dirhams worse than expected and the group lost over 3.4 billion dirhams in revenue.

The group, which includes Emirates airline and Dnata ground handling unit, didn't declare a dividend for the financial year.

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Emirates Group also said: "Emirates has taken various measures to manage the business through this crisis, including compensating cost saving measures, reductions to discretionary capital expenditure and agreeing additional working capital facilities.

"These measures also include obtaining committed support from the government of Dubai which has publicly confirmed that they will financially support Emirates during this period through a variety of measures including an additional equity injection, if required." BLOOMBERG