DUBAI • Emirates airline yesterday reported a 20.28 billion dirham (S$7.3 billion) full-year loss, its first in over three decades, after the Covid-19 pandemic upended demand for air travel.

The airline, one of the world's largest before the pandemic, saw revenue plunge 66.4 per cent to 30.9 billion dirhams as passenger traffic plummeted 88.3 per cent to just 6.5 million.

The airline group slumped to a 22.1 billion dirham loss in the financial year ended March. Emirates Group reduced its total workforce by 31 per cent to 75,145 employees.

The state-owned company received a capital injection of 11.3 billion dirhams from its owner, the government of Dubai. Its dnata - Dubai National Air Travel Agency - unit tapped industry support programmes and availed relief of nearly 800 million dirhams, its chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said.

Emirates has been hit especially hard by the pandemic, with widespread border curbs making it impossible for people to make the inter-continental journeys in which it specialises.

The Gulf carrier responded by grounding most of its fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos, while its Boeing 777s are struggling with lower passenger loads and mainly transporting cargo.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE