Qatar Airways’ records 2.8% increase in freight handled in 2019-20

September 28, 2020: Qatar Airways’ freight tonnes handled in the year 2019-20 increased by 2.8 percent. The group's revenue increased by QAR 51.1 billion, seat capacity increased by 3.2 percent, and passenger traffic at Hamad International Airport increased by 8.6 per cent. Passenger revenue grew by 8.9 per cent with capacity (available seat kilometres) growth of 3.2 per cent. Qatar Airways carried 32.4 million passengers, an increase of 9.8 per cent over last financial year.

Akbar Al Baker, group chief executive, said, “Despite the momentous challenges our group has faced in 2019-20, we continue to remain resilient, reporting strong underlying fundamentals. If not for the exceptional circumstances of fiscal year 2020, our results would have been better than the year before. Qatar Airways invested QAR 16.8 billion in fleet and other assets during the year and had a cash balance of QAR 7.3 billion at year end. Significant progress has been achieved in the three-year transformation plan, which began pre-Covid-19 and will position the group’s operations and practices to meet the current challenges.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, the airline has taken over two million people home and carried over 250,000 tonnes of medical and aid supplies to impacted regions.

Qatar Airways has also highlighted the airline’s resilience in the face of the continued illegal airspace blockade against the State of Qatar and the most challenging period in global aviation’s history. The combination of the ongoing illegal air space blockade against the State of Qatar, the liquidation of Air Italy by the majority shareholder, changes to accounting policy and reporting standards and the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has resulted in the Qatar Airways Group reporting a net loss of QAR 7 billion for the year 2019-20. Excluding these exceptional items, the Group’s results at both operating and net levels would have been better than that reported in the year before clearly demonstrating the Group’s improving performance. 

Throughout the pandemic Qatar Airways’ network has never fallen below 30 destinations with continuous services to five continents. Since then the airline has rebuilt its network to more than 650 weekly flights to over 90 destinations across six continents.

According to the latest IATA data, Qatar Airways has become the largest international carrier between April to July 2020 by fulfilling its mission of taking people home.