Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said on Tuesday the emirate’s government was committed to fully support Emirates airline and will inject fresh equity into the company to help it overcome the coronavirus crisis.
Emirates has a “strategic importance to the Dubai and UAE economy and the airlines (have a) key role in positioning Dubai as a major international aviation hub”, Sheikh Hamdan said in a Twitter post.
“Further details in this regard will be announced at a later stage,” he added.
Emirates, which suspended passenger operations this month, has temporarily cut staff wages by as much as half due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its business.
It only operates international flights, and most of its passengers transit through Dubai.
Emirates Group, a state holding company that counts the airline among its assets, had 100,000 employees, including more than 21,000 cabin crew and 4,000 pilots, at end March 2019, the close of its last financial year.
Its long-serving president Tim Clark is due to step down in June.
It was not immediately clear if the government would provide support to fellow Dubai state carrier flydubai, which on Monday said it would temporarily reduce wages for three months.
Separately, Dubai-based banks will implement measures to help customers cope with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE state news agency WAM reported.
The measures, which include flexible loan reimbursements and fee waivers, will be implemented between April 1 and June 30, it said, citing a decision by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also the prime minister of the UAE.
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