Qatar Airways has reported a loss of $69m on the back of an $11.5bn revenue in its latest fiscal year ending 31 March 2018.

The results strongly contrast with the previous year’s financial performance, when the airline reported an adjusted profit of $766m.

Akbar al-Baker, Qatar Airways CEO, had warned of a significant loss during the fiscal year as a result of the embargo its neighbours imposed on the state since June last year. The embargo led to the closure of all direct air, land and maritime routes between it and its neighbours Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In November last year, Qatar Airways  acquired a 9.61 per cent stake in Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific, making the Qatari carrier the third largest shareholder in the company. The purchase is estimated to have cost Qatar Airways $661m

It is the fourth overseas investment by Qatar Airways. It previously acquired 20 per cent of British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines Group, 10 per cent of Chile-based LATAM Airlines, and 49 per cent of Italy’s Meridiana.

There are plans to expand the airline’s hub, Hamad International airport.

MEED understands the technical evaluation of the bids for the project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the airport expansion is ongoing.

The teams that submitted a bid for the contract are understood to include:

• Aecom (US) / Astad Engineering (local)
• Egis(France) / Jacobs Engineering (US) / SNC Lavalin (Faithful & Gould) (Canada)
• Hill International (US) / WSP (Canada) / Meinhardt (Singapore).

The planned expansion covers the construction of a new cargo terminal and airside works that cover additional taxi and apron stands, in addition to the expansion of the main passenger terminal building and the construction of concourses D and E.

It is designed to double the airport’s capacity to 60 million passengers a year by 2021, a year before Qatar is due to stage the Fifa World Cup.