Emirates CEO: Industry must “tough through” till 2023

Tim Clark, Emirates Airline’s CEO, anticipates some current operational challenges to continue into 2023.

On 18 July, Clark spoke on a panel at the Farnborough air show on the “true supply of labour problem” affecting economies worldwide and how businesses in the air transport chain are having difficulty finding enough employees.

As he sees it, we’ll be forced to tough it out until things settle down in 2023, when he predicts everything will be back to normal.

Many people want to leave the sector in 2020, and it’s going to be hard to find replacements.

Clark anticipates that the problems will persist for several months.

Despite this, Clark feels that some companies were not well prepared for the resumption of travel demand in the wake of Covid.

Speaking with airports and other suppliers about the predicted high return of customer demand once international travel was again available, he recalls stating, “it’s coming… it usually bounces back.” “[But] the costs of getting it wrong were more worrying to everyone.”

Speaking on the same panel, IATA director general Willie Walsh hopes to see an improvement in the staffing issue in the next few months.

He says the challenges aren’t occurring in “all markets or at all airlines,” but “I think we have the potential to be ready as we go through the rest of this year”.

Regarding Heathrow’s problems, Walsh agrees with Clark that a lack of planning is to blame, saying, “It should not be as awful as it is.”

Source: FlightGlobal