Emirates says it has been caught out by soaring fuel prices and is warning against complacency within the airline.
The airline uses 3 million barrels a month and the airline's president of group services Gary Chapman said the speed of fuel price rises took Emirates by surprise.
The
price of oil peaked at US$147 ($205) a barrel in July but has since retreated to US$118 this week.
Add another 20 per cent for jet fuel refining costs and this adds up to enormous extra costs for Emirates.
"We've been caught out, we didn't expect prices to go as high as they have and it's hurt us," Chapman said.
Emirates does not run a rigid fuel hedging programme - locking into fixed prices - to the same extent as other airlines.
The company's approach has served it well for the past five years, saving up to $300 million in good years when fuel was cheap. But Emirates' "fluid"approach was "not working as well as we'd like it at the moment", Chapman said.
Like other airlines, Emirates was faced with the difficult decision of when to lock into contracts.
"It's never easy - you don't want to panic or let emotion get in the way. What happens then is you make the wrong decisions."
Emirates is leaping up the airline rankings in terms of size of its fleet and numbers of passengers carried and would grow between 15 per cent and 20 per cent during the next year.
But the carrier's president Tim Clark has warned of sharply reduced profit from the US$1.5 billion profit forecast for this year.
Already about 25 airlines have ceased flying and other airlines have laid off thousands of staff, pushed up fares and grounded planes. Emirates was looking to trim costs wherever it could find them.
'We don't have to make people redundant ... but we will certainly be demanding more of our people," said Chapman. The airline has around 30,000 workers, among them 349 New Zealanders.
* Grant Bradley flew to Dubai courtesy of Emirates
