United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai reported a loss of AED 712.6 million (US$ 194 million) for 2020. The total annual revenue of the company amounted to AED 2.8 billion (US$ 773 million) compared to AED 6.0 billion (USD 1.6 billion) in 2019, a decrease of 52.7%.
“COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us more than any other crisis,” says Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai, commenting on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on flydubai’s 2020 Annual Results, recently published by the company.
The number of passengers falls 67% to 3.2 million in 2020 while the number of flights it operated fell 63% to 27,450.
The number of employees on unpaid or voluntary leave stood at 1,092 for Dec 31, 2020, which reads the annual results of the company. 126 employees have left the company.
Coupled with the effects of the pandemic, performance was also impacted by the 22-month grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. This heavily impacted the financial performance from mid-March continued into the second quarter and resulted in a loss of AED 545.2 million for the six-month period ending 30 June.
The company says,” the strategy defined at the start of the pandemic to develop alternative revenue sources and contain costs gained momentum during the third and fourth quarters minimizing the second half loss to AED 167.4 million.”
“The government created a safe environment for tourism and this increased demand contributed to flydubai’s recovery in the second half of 2020. It is expected to continue in 2021,” reads the release.
