Emirates president says airline will return “hard and fast” after regional disruption

Berlin: Emirates President Tim Clark said the airline will bounce back from the crisis engulfing carriers in the Middle East and that European airlines hoping to capitalise on the current weakness should watch their backs. 

Speaking to journalists in Berlin, Clark said the carrier has “no intention of cutting back, reducing, or anything else.” Clark said it’s “a little bit sad” to see European carriers take advantage of their Middle Eastern rivals’ weakness, after sitting out the opportunity to formulate their response to the rising new airlines for decades.

“My message to all of them, be careful what you wish for, we will back very hard and fast,” Clark said.  

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways were forced to cut back operations since the start of hostilities at the end of February because air spaces in the region closed.

That’s taken a major aviation region out for weeks, providing an opening for the likes of Deutsche Lufthansa AG that are now pushing more capacity into Asia. 

Already, some players are publicly saying that the opportunity to take business from the likes of Emirates won’t last. At this weeks’ annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association, executives said that things will likely to back to normal before too long as Middle East carriers bounce back. 

Clark also made an impassioned plea to give Emirates “free and open access” to more markets, including Berlin, where the airline has long sought to gain a slot. German authorities have so far denied that wish, saying the carrier also has four slots into German cities and won’t be granted more.

“We have brought enormous economic wealth to Germany just by virtue of what we’ve bought,” Clark said as he pointed to investments in aircraft partially built in Germany as well as local suppliers. “We have very compelling reasons to be allowed to go to Berlin.” 

Clark also signaled the airline is in no rush to order Airbus SE’s A350-1000 model, the larger type of a widebody jet the carrier already operations. Emirates has been vocal in its criticism of the engine performance on the bigger type, saying the Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc model doesn’t meet its durability specifications. 

“I don’t think we are in a position to take the A350-1000 until we’ve seen whatever engine improvements they make,” Clark said. “It works better in temperate climates, but with high takeoff weights, the dust in the air, the air pressure, low altitude, the operating conditions in the summer months, it’s a real challenge.”

Emirates has built its fleet around the Airbus A380 double-decker and Boeing Co.’s 777, with a growing number of the A350-900. Clark said he’s satisfied with the performance of that particular plane, and that eventually he’ll have to find a replacement for the out-of-production A380, which might open the door to the A350-1000.

Clark, 76, also said he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon, and that he’d like to see the carrier through the current situation. 

“We have a team of people working in Emirates, some of them are lifers like me, who live and breathe the carrier,” Clark said. “So if I was to step out personally, I would be quite confident that the people left in place to run the business are so well attuned to the criticality of the message that it would not be affected by my absence.”