Emirates Group reports strong recovery in 2021-22

The Emirates Group has released its 2021-22 Annual Report, which shows a strong recovery across its businesses.— Photo courtesy of Emirates

The Emirates Group has released its 2021-22 Annual Report, which shows a strong recovery across its businesses.

dnata returned to profitability, and significant revenue improvements were reported across Emirates and dnata as the group rebuilt its air transport and travel-related operations, which were previously cut back or curtailed by the pandemic.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2022, the Emirates Group posted a loss of AED 3.8 billion (US$ 1.0 billion) compared with an AED 22.1 billion (US$ 6.0 billion) loss for last year.

The group's revenue was AED 66.2 billion (US$ 18.1 billion), an increase of 86 per cent over last year's results. The group's cash balance was AED 25.8 billion (US$ 7.0 billion), up 30 per cent 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 the pace, particularly in the second half of the year,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.

“Robust customer demand drove a huge improvement in our financial performance compared to our unprecedented losses last year, and we built up our strong cash balance."

Emirates' total passenger and cargo capacity increased by 47 per cent to 36.4 billion ATKMs in 2021-22, as the airline continued to reinstate passenger services across its network in line with the lifting of pandemic-related flight and travel restrictions. Emirates carried 19.6 million passengers (up by 199 per cent) in 2021-22, with seat capacity up by 150 per cent.

In the second pandemic year, Emirates SkyCargo once again put in a stellar performance and contributed to 40 per cent of the airline's total transport revenue through its ability to respond rapidly to changing demand patterns in a distorted global marketplace.

Rebuilding its network and capacity, the cargo division intelligently deployed its freighter fleet and hold capacity to meet customer needs. By 30 June 2021, it had restored services to over 90 per cent of its pre-pandemic network.

During the year, Emirates SkyCargo continued to play an important role in getting COVID-19 vaccines and other medical supplies to communities worldwide and keeping trade lanes open for food supplies, e-commerce and other essential goods.

In June 2021, it invested in scaling up its pharma cool chain infrastructure in Dubai, and by March 2022, Emirates SkyCargo had transported 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

In Việt Nam, since the reopening of tourism to foreign tourists in March 2022, Emirates has increased the weekly frequency to eight round-trip flights on both routes from HCM City and Hà Nội to Dubai and beyond. — VNS