Dubai’s Emirates will ‘go profitable’ during 2022-23

Dubai carrier Emirates expects to return to profitability during the 2022-2023 fiscal year amid ease in travel-related restrictions, its president Tim Clark has said.

The airline will turn a moderate profit in the “back end” of the next financial year, barring any new developments, Clark said at the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s annual general meeting, The National reported.

“I’m sure the business will really start to generate the cash that it needs and go profitable during the course of 22-23, moderately so,” he added. “You’ll never at this point go back to the levels that we were a few years ago, but we’ll get there eventually.”

He further added that Emirates also expects to narrow its half-year loss for the six months ending on September 30. “We’ve reduced the loss over this time last year by a significant percentage; goodness me, that was Herculean.”

Emirates Group had posted its first non-profitable year in over three decades, recording an annual loss of Dhs22.1bn ($6bn) for the financial year ending March 31, 2021. Redundancies were implemented across all parts of the business, resulting in a total workforce reduction by 31 per cent.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates Group reports $6bn annual loss, records first non-profitable year in over three decades

However last month, the carrier said that it had launched a worldwide recruitment drive to hire 3,000 cabin crew and 500 airport services employees to join its Dubai hub over the next six months.

Read: Emirates recruiting 3,000 cabin crew as part of expansion drive at Dubai hub

Dubai lender Emirates NBD also signed a $750m 5-year dual tranche financing facility with the carrier on September 30, 2021.

Read more: Dubai’s Emirates NBD signs $750m financing facility with Emirates Airline

IATA Travel Pass
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that six airlines namely Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Jazeera Airways, Jetstar, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian, will implement the IATA Travel Pass in a phased rollout across the airlines’ networks.

BREAKING: @etihad, @JazeeraAirways,@JetstarAirways, @Qantas, @QatarAirways and @RoyalJordanian, will implement #IATATravelPass in a phased rollout across their networks.

These ✈️ ✈️ join @emirates as implementation pioneers ? ? ?

Read more: https://t.co/U6Dqz8Haf8#IATAAGM pic.twitter.com/toMDRcBwmx

— IATA (@IATA) October 5, 2021

These airlines join Emirates, which said last month that it is the first carrier to implement the solution on six continents as it rolls out the pass to customers at all its destinations.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to implement IATA Travel Pass across six continents

“After months of testing, IATA Travel Pass is now entering the operational phase. The app has proven itself to be an effective tool to manage the complex mess of travel health credentials that governments require. And it’s a great vote of confidence that some of the world’s best known airline brands will be making it available to their customers over the coming months,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.