DUBAI: Budget carrier flydubai reported a 2020 loss of 712.6 million dirhams ($194 million) as passenger numbers plummeted in the year of the pandemic.
That compared to a profit of 198.2 million dirhams a year earlier.
Annual revenues fell by more than half to 2.8 billion dirhams, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us more than any other crisis,” said flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith. “We fully recognize that it is the priority of governments to ensure the health and wellbeing of its people. The effects of the travel restrictions that were put in place to safeguard against transmission of the virus have heavily impacted the aviation industry.”
Like other regional carriers, flydubai was hit hard by the collapse of international air travel last year. At the same time it 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 545.2 million dirhams for the six-month period ending 30 June, the airline said.
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