Emirates Airlines said today, Thursday, that it incurred a loss of $ 3.4 billion in the first half of the year;

Due to the Coronavirus crisis, which prompted its holding company to record a semi-annual loss for the first time in more than 30 years.

The airline, which temporarily suspended operations this year, recorded a 75% drop in revenue to $ 3.2 billion.

"Due to these unprecedented conditions that afflicted the aviation and travel sector, the Emirates Group recorded semi-annual losses for the first time in more than 30 years," said the Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Airlines, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, in a statement.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the Emirati Emaar Real Estate Company announced that its profits have decreased by 48% in the first nine months of 2020, compared to the corresponding period of 2019, while Etihad Airways, owned by the Abu Dhabi government, intends to lay off more workers.

Emaar - one of the largest real estate development companies in the Middle East - said that the net profit amounted to 2.43 billion dirhams ($ 663 million) in the nine months ending last September, and the company's profits amounted to 4.65 billion dirhams ($ 1.27 billion) for the same period. From 2019.

According to a company statement, revenues decreased by 26% year-on-year, to 13.37 billion dirhams ($ 3.64 billion), compared to 18.01 billion dirhams ($ 4.9 billion) in the comparative period last year.

Emaar's results reflect the extent to which Dubai's economy has been affected by the Corona pandemic, and its clear impact on key sectors in the UAE such as real estate, tourism and investment.

Emaar - the largest real estate company listed on the Dubai Financial Market - was established in 1997 and is active in 36 markets in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

 Etihad is suffering

In the UAE, an internal email also showed that Etihad Airways has notified cabin crew about new layoffs scheduled for this week.

A company source said that it had been decided not to operate the company's fleet of giant "Airbus A380" aircraft "indefinitely" after a slower than expected recovery of demand.

Etihad will become a much smaller airline as demand for air travel does not recover at the required speed (Reuters)

In the email reviewed by Reuters, the company informed the hospitality crew that the concerned parties would be notified of the decision within 24 hours, without mentioning the number of those who would lose their jobs, and this comes two days after a similar notification was sent to the pilots working in the company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Airways has already cut the number of jobs and salaries after deepening losses this year.

The letter stated that Etihad would become a much smaller airline;

As the demand for air travel has not recovered at the required speed, which means that the company's workforce has become more than its needs.

A source in the company stated that it is expected that up to a thousand of the hospitality crew will be laid off, including chiefs and managers, and the number of employees in the company’s hospitality crews reached about 4,800 until last February.

In a second email, sent on Wednesday, the union informed the rest of the staff that the hospitality crew was still redundant;

But the company added that it would deal with that situation with an unpaid leave program.

The source said that the CEO of the company, Tony Douglas, informed the employees that the A380 would remain in operation "indefinitely."

The company has stopped flying the plane since last March.

Due to the sharp drop in demand due to the pandemic.

Etihad Airways said earlier this week that it would press ahead with plans to downsize it, to become a medium carrier focused on its fleet of wide-body aircraft, raising questions about the future of the 30 slim-bodied aircraft it owns Airbus A320. .