Qatar weathers Covid-19 storm

DOHA, 29 September 2020: Qatar Airways published its Annual Report Monday for the fiscal year 2019-20, ending 31 March, that highlighted the airline group’s resilience in the face of the most challenging period in global aviation’s history.

Qatar Airways Group reports a net loss of QAR 7 billion for the financial year 2019 to 2020.

The airline said in its annual report preamble that it had faced exceptional challenges saying 2019-20 was “one of the most difficult years in the airline’s history.”

It blamed the loss on the combination of the illegal air space blockade against the State of Qatar, the liquidation of Air Italy by the majority shareholder, changes to accounting policy and reporting standards and the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. 

Passenger revenue grew by 8.9%  with capacity (Available Seat Kilometers) growth of 3.2%. Qatar Airways carried 32.4 million passengers, an increase of 9.8% over the last financial year.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “Despite the momentous challenges our group faced in 2019-20, Qatar Airways Group continues to remain resilient, reporting strong underlying fundamentals. If not for the exceptional circumstances of the fiscal year 2020, our results would have been better than the year before.

“During the fiscal year 2020, the group’s revenue increased to QAR 51.1 billion, seat capacity increased by 3.2%, freight tonnes handled increased by 2.8% and passenger traffic at Hamad International Airport increased by 8.6%.

Qatar Airways invested QAR 16.8 billion in the fleet and other assets during the year and had a cash balance of QAR 7.3 billion at year-end.

Significant progress has been achieved in the three-year transformation plan, which began pre-Covid-19 and will position the group’s operations and practices to meet the current challenges.

Throughout the pandemic, Qatar Airways’ network has never fallen below 30 destinations with continuous services to five continents. Since then the airline has rebuilt its network to more than 650 weekly flights to over 90 destinations across six continents.