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Qatar Airways just announced a record loss of $ 4.1 billion for fiscal year 2020-2021, but that may not be as bad as it sounds.
Qatar Airways financial year 2020-2021 results
Qatar Airways reported a net amount of less than $ 4.1 billion for the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021), although $ 2.3 billion of this amount represents a one-time impairment charge related to the ‘immobilization of the Airbus A380 of the carrier and Airbus A330 fleets.
Of the $ 4.1 billion loss, only $ 288.3 million was an operating loss, and that loss is 7% lower than the prior year. This is quite remarkable in a way, since the previous fiscal year was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the pandemic.
Qatar Airways took an unconventional approach during the pandemic – while most airlines have drastically cut service for long periods of time, Qatar Airways has never stopped flying and has also restored service much faster than in d ‘other airlines. This gives Qatar Airways a huge payback advantage, especially for an airline reliant on connecting traffic.
When the pandemic first shut down global aviation, Qatar Airways briefly reduced its route network to 33 destinations. However, at this point the airline is back to 140 destinations, including flights to some cities that were not served before the pandemic (for example, in the United States, Qatar Airways has started flying to San Francisco. and Seattle).
Looking at the annual report, here are some interesting numbers that stand out, comparing fiscal year 2020-2021 to fiscal year 2019-2020:
- Qatar Airways had 36,707 employees, up from 50,110 the previous year
- Qatar Airways had 250 aircraft, up from 258 the year before
- Qatar Airways carried 5.829 million passengers, up from 32.364 million passengers the previous year
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the following about the carrier’s performance over the past year:
“There are three words that, in my opinion, best describe Qatar Airways Group’s response over the past year: strength, resilience and commitment. The strength not to hesitate to take a risk or avoid difficult decisions, the resilience to stay focused and not let events get over us, and the commitment to never renege on our promises to customers, partners and employees.
Qatar Airways received $ 3 billion in government aid
Qatar Airways is government-owned, and in the financial results it is revealed that the government has provided the airline with $ 3 billion in the form of a “equity injection” over the past year. In the previous fiscal year, the airline received approximately $ 2 billion in government support.
While some US carriers have long complained about subsidies to Gulf carriers, I imagine they won’t have much to say this time around, as the support Qatar Airways has received is paltry compared to this. that American, Delta and United got from American taxpayers.
At the end of the line
Qatar Airways reported a loss of $ 4.1 billion in the past fiscal year, although more than half of that loss was a one-time impairment charge to account for the downtime of the A380 and A330 fleets. The airline received a $ 3 billion capital injection from the Qatari government, which is hardly remarkable compared to what we’ve seen in the rest of the world.
In the end, virtually every airline has had a difficult year, and I was impressed with how Qatar Airways forged its own path through the pandemic and maintained its network while other airlines failed. have not.
What do you think of Qatar Airways’ results for the past financial year?
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