Emirates would need to redefine its post-pandemic strategy to recover from the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic, according to its chief operating officer.
“We will need to redefine some of the operating model … because surely what used to work for us in the past is not going to work for us going forward,” Adel Ahmad Al Redha told Reuters.
According to him, Emirates would focus on getting more passengers to visit Dubai while continuing to “connect the world” through the hub-and-spoke model it relied on for over three decades.
Emirates has announced that it will raise debt in order to help the company weather the coronavirus crisis, the media reported.
Emirates warned that it might take up to 18 months for the aviation sector to recover from the setbacks caused by the pandemic. The company reported a 21 percent increase in profit for its financial year that ended on March 31.
It is still unclear how much debt Emirates is planning to raise.
Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed said in a statement, “The Covid-19 pandemic will have a huge impact on our 2020-21 performance. We continue to take aggressive cost management measures and other necessary steps to safeguard our business, while planning for business resumption.”
The carrier also announced that it will resume a further seven passenger services to its itinerary next month as the emirate continues to ease travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Emirates will relaunch flights to Khartoum from July 3; Osaka from July 7; Narita from July 8; and Athens, Larnaca and Rome from July 5.
The latest series of resumptions means the airline will fly to 48 destinations.