Emirates got $3.1 billion from Dubai govt as pandemic drove losses

DUBAI (Reuters) - State-owned Emirates said on Tuesday Dubai was committed to supporting it through the coronavirus crisis after the airline's holding company plunged to its first annual loss in over three decades.

The Dubai government has injected $3.1 billion into Emirates since the onset of the pandemic, the airline group said in its annual report. It disclosed a $2 billion equity injection last year.

Emirates airline made a 20.28 billion dirham ($5.52 billion) loss for the year, while the group recorded an annual loss of 22.1 billion dirhams, its first in 33 years.

The airline, one of the world's largest prior to the pandemic, saw revenue plunge 66.4% to 30.9 billion dirham as passenger traffic plummeted 88.3% to just 6.5 million

""No one knows when the pandemic will be over, but we know recovery will be patchy," Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement.

(Writing by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Jason Neely and Muralikumar Anantharaman)