Qatar Airways reports £1.5bn losses
27 September 2020, 12:54
The state-owned carrier blamed the global pandemic and an ongoing boycott of Doha by four Arab nations for further adding to its losses.
Long-haul carrier Qatar Airways has reported revenue losses of 1.9 billion US dollars (£1.49 billion) for the past year, blaming the coronavirus pandemic among other things.
The state-owned carrier also pointed to the impact of its liquidation of shares in Air Italy and the ongoing boycott of Doha by four Arab nations, as well as blaming new accounting rules for further adding to losses for the past fiscal year, which ended on March 31.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar al-Baker said in a statement: “If not for the exceptional circumstances of fiscal year 2020, our results would have been better than the year before.”
It also restated its losses for the previous year in the financial report on Sunday, putting it at close to 1.3 billion US dollars (£1 billion) as opposed to the 639 million US dollars (£501 million) it earlier reported.
It lost 69 million US dollars (£54 million) in 2018.
The coronavirus pandemic halted global aviation for months.
Qatar has also been targeted by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a boycott since June 2017.
The boycott continues, despite efforts by other Gulf Arab nations and the US to reconcile the countries involved in the political dispute.
