Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi today announced a loss of $ 758 million in the first half, as passenger traffic decreased by about 60% due to the Corona virus.
The airline said in a statement that it transported 3.5 million passengers in the six months to June 30, compared to 8.2 million in the same period a year ago.
Etihad has gradually resumed its regular and scheduled passenger service since last June, after it was suspended in March.
Aviation was one of the sectors worst hit during the Covid-19 crisis, as airlines were forced to lay off workers and request financial rescue from governments, and the union cut jobs and salaries.
The company - which lost $ 5.62 billion in the past four years - said it had started the year with a solid start before global travel faltered and was almost completely stopped by the pandemic.
For its part, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) - the fourth largest petrochemical company in the world - announced that it incurred a net loss of 2.2 billion riyals ($ 586.6 million) in the second quarter, which is the third consecutive quarterly loss due to provisions for impairment and declining sales.
The company's losses for the first half of this year amounted to 3.27 billion riyals, compared to profits of 5.35 billion riyals achieved during the same period last year.
SABIC attributed the loss to recording provisions for impairment of 1.18 billion riyals in capital assets and the decline in average prices and sales quantities.
The loss came compared to a net profit of 2.03 billion riyals a year ago, and was compounded by a loss of 1.05 billion riyals in the first quarter, and analysts expected SABIC to incur a loss of 40.85 million riyals.
And Saudi oil producer Saudi Aramco completed the purchase of a 70% stake in SABIC for $ 69.1 billion in June, and extended the payment period by 3 years to 2028, to hedge against weak oil prices.