DOHA (AP) – Qatar Airways has announced that it suffered a more than $4bn loss in revenues over the last fiscal year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for long-haul travel.
The major loss, which the state-owned airline largely attributed to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets, highlights the dramatic toll of the pandemic on the industry.
Even so, the Doha-based airline reported an increase in earnings to $1.6bn before taxes and other costs compared to the previous year — costs that dropped significantly as the airline saved on jet fuel, reduced salaries by 15 percent and cut some 13,400 employees from its workforce. The pandemic has hit international routes the hardest, dealing a heavy blow to super connectors in the Persian Gulf that essentially lack domestic markets.
The airline acknowledged receiving a $3bn lifeline from the Qatari government to keep operating as it struggled with virus restrictions. Revenue for the airline fell to over $8bn from $14bn the year before. The airline incurred charges that ran to $2.3bn over the grounding of its wide-body fleet.
The carrier took just 5.8 million passengers to the skies in the last fiscal year, compared to 32.3 million the year before — a staggering 82 percent drop.