No decision made on mass layoffs, says Emirates
- 17 May 2020
Inayat-ur-Rahman, Staff Reporter
Emirates airline on Sunday said that it has not made any announcement regarding mass layoffs at the airline.
The statement came after Bloomberg News reported that the Emirates Group was planning to cut about 30,000 jobs to reduce costs.
“No announcement has been made regarding mass redundancies at the airline. Any such decision will be communicated in an appropriate fashion,” Emirates spokesperson told Gulf Today on Sunday.
“Like any responsible business would do, our executive team has directed all departments to conduct a thorough review of costs and resourcing against business projections, even as we prepare for gradual service resumption,” it said.
“As our chairman has said, conserving cash, safeguarding our business, and preserving as much of as our skilled workforce as possible, remain our top priorities through this period,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, Emirates Group has recently announced its 32nd consecutive year of profit, against a drop in revenue mainly attributed to reduced operations during the planned DXB runway closure in the first quarter, and the impact of flight and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the fourth quarter.
Released last week in its 2019-20 Annual Report, the Emirates Group posted a profit of Dhs1.7 billion ($456 million) for the financial year ended 31 March 2020.
The Group’s revenue reached Dhs104.0 billion ($28.3 billion). The Group’s cash balance was Dhs 25.6 billion ($7.0 billion), up 15% from last year mainly due to a strong business performance up to February 2020 and lower fuel cost compared to previous year.
Due to the unprecedented business environment from the ongoing pandemic, and to protect the Group’s liquidity position, the Group has not declared a dividend for this financial year after last year’s dividend of Dhs 500 million (US$ 136 million) to the Investment Corporation of Dubai.Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “For the first 11 months of 2019-20, Emirates and dnata were performing strongly, and we were on track to deliver against our business targets. However, from mid-February things changed rapidly as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, causing a sudden and tremendous drop in demand for international air travel as countries closed their borders and imposed stringent travel restrictions.
“Even without a pandemic, our industry has always been vulnerable to a multitude of external factors. In 2019-20, the further strengthening of the US dollar against major currencies eroded our profits to the tune of Dhs1.0 billion, global airfreight demand remained soft for most of the year, and competition intensified in our key markets.