Emirates airline posts $1.6 bn loss over six months

An Emirates Airlines Boing 777 plane unload a coronavirus vaccine shipment at Dubai International Airport on February 1, 2021 as key transport hub Dubai announced an initiative to accelerate the delivery of coronavirus vaccines, particularly to developing nations. The Vaccine Logistics Alliance, which includes Dubai-based Emirates airline and global logistics giant DP World, is designed to "speed up distribution of Covid-19 vaccines around the world through the emirate". The alliance will "support" the World Health Organization's Covax initiative to distribute two billion vaccine doses, the Dubai Media Office said in a statement, without specifying how many doses it would deliver. (Karim SAHIB / AFP)

(AFP) - Emirates airline posted a $1.6 billion loss in the first half of the financial year, the Dubai-based carrier said Wednesday, as it remains in the red due to the Covid pandemic.

However, revenue was up 86 percent to $5.9 billion and the loss compares to $3.4 billion during the same period last year, the company said in a statement.

"Across the group, we saw operations and demand pick up as countries started to ease travel restrictions," CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said.

"This momentum accelerated over the summer and continues to grow steadily into the winter season and beyond.

"While there's still some way to go before we restore our operations to pre-pandemic levels and return to profitability, we are well on the recovery path," he added.

In June Emirates, the biggest airline in the Middle East, announced its first annual loss in more than three decades after the pandemic threw the aviation industry into crisis.

The carrier said then that it had received a capital injection of $3.1 billion from its owner, the government of Dubai, to help it survive the crisis.

© Agence France-Presse