Dubai: From grounding flights during Covid to registering record profit of Dh10.9 billion; how Emirates turned the tide

Emirates Group has bounced back strongly after the pandemic, posting a record profit of Dh10.9 billion ($3 billion) for its 2022-23 financial year.

It posted a Dh3.8 billion loss in 2021-22 and a Dh22.1 billion loss in 2020-21 following the outbreak of the coronavirus, resulting in the grounding of the aircraft at the peak of the pandemic.

After grounding the aircraft to sending thousands of its staff on long leaves during the peak of the pandemic, the group has now almost returned to its pre-pandemic number of employees and overall performance as well.

Prior to Covid, it employed 105,730 employees in 2019-20. By the end of the 2022-23 financial year ended on March 31, it employed 102,379 employees, adding 17,160 workers – thanks to the strong recovery in the trade and tourism sectors last year.

In this spectacular turnaround, Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates played a key role and proved highly resilient yet again as it moved from post-pandemic recovery to a growth phase this year.

“If nothing else, the past 3 years have clearly shown the Emirates Group’s true mettle. We are nimble, resilient, forward-looking, and capable of tackling any headwinds that may come,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.

The airline’s recovery or growth has been driven mainly by its human capital, which was reflected in President Sir Tim Clark's statement, who predicted soon after the pandemic that recovery will be very strong.

The world has now witnessed how “revenge travel” helps airlines to turn back into the black. Emirates is not just the beneficiary of this “revenge travel”. As reported by Khaleej Times earlier, SriLankan Airlines has also reached the breakeven point, benefiting from the travel sector’s growth.

Emirates’ spectacular turnaround was also driven by the timely restarting of its services earlier than many other airlines post-pandemic, strengthening its network, deploying additional capacity to destinations where it was required, signing 11 additional codeshare and interline agreements, offering its passengers to travel seamlessly to more than 500 destinations.

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