Dubai runway work to dampen Emirates revenue -exec

PARIS, March 6 (Reuters) - Emirates will suffer an unspecified dip in revenue from the temporary grounding of 20 aircraft or around 10 percent of its fleet for 80 days from May 1 due to the planned closure of a runway at Dubai International airport, an executive said.

"We will feel it of course," Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori told reporters on the sidelines of the ITB Berlin tourism fair.

The grounding will include all of the airline's Airbus A340-500s, which will also be phased out entirely during the next 12 months, Antinori said. It will also include many of the company's Airbus A330s and a few of its Boeing 777s.

Antinori said a partnership with Qantas was working but decined to comment on financial losses at the Australian carrier which faces heavy domestic and overseas competition. Increased load factors in business class have more than offset pressure on yields in economy class as rivals increase capacity, he said.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan, Editing by Tim Hepher)

((tim.hepher@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 54 52; Reuters Messaging: tim.hepher.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))

Keywords: EMIRATES AIRLINES/