Dubai: Emirates have again warned that it could be set to lose Dh1 billion in revenue this year due to the capacity-constraining runway closure at Dubai International.
Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and chairman and chief executive of Emirates airline and Emirates Group, delivering the Group’s 2013-2014 annual results on Thursday, said the fleet grounding will impact next year’s financial performance.
Dubai International is operating with a single runway for 80 days, which started on May 1, due to scheduled maintenance work. Emirates is grounding up to 22 aircraft each month until July 20 and cutting frequency on 41 routes.
Airline revenues for the year ending March 31 were up 13 per cent to Dh82.6 billion, the group reported on Thursday, also announcing that the Dh22 billion invested is the largest amount in a single fiscal year.
Shaikh Ahmad said the investment was largely used for the airlines fleet expansion.
Shaikh Ahmad, who is also Chairman of Dubai Airports, added that the airline and other stakeholders considered various options for the runway closure including shifting part of the Emirates’ operations to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC). Another proposition was to intermittently close the runway for 10 to 12 hours each day, however, over a much lengthier period.
