The president of Emirates has stated he sees a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic coming from Europe which is regarding the airline.
Speaking to CNBC on the Dubai Air Show, Emirates President Tim Clark stated: “I see a fourth wave coming through and we have all sorts of concerns about what may happen.”
“We’ve got to look at it very carefully, because if the European markets — which have already started to open in a big way — start to go the other way we’re going to have to deal with that. But we will deal with it … we’re very good at working around problems, and we’ll just do what we have to do,” he informed CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
Earlier this month, the WHO warned that Europe was once again the epicenter of the Covid pandemic. The area’s largest financial system, Germany, is currently reporting around 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day, and France has additionally reported a surge in instances. Austria, in the meantime, is anticipated to shortly impose lockdown restrictions on millions of unvaccinated people in an effort to include rising infections.
Airlines have been hoping that the Dubai Air Show marks a turning level for the business after a devastating interval. It’s the primary main aerospace exhibition to happen for the reason that begin of the coronavirus pandemic which noticed journey restrictions the world over decimate the business.
The International Air Transport Association stated final month that the global airline industry is expected to lose almost $12 billion next year. The IATA, which represents practically 300 airways that function greater than 80% of the world’s air site visitors, added that business losses in 2020 have been worse than initially thought, coming in at $137.7 billion.
However, Clark stated that Emirates was already experiencing a important pick-up in demand and had began to show a revenue.
“We’re bouncing back with a high degree of, dare I say, robustness,” he stated. “Demand is coming back at such a pace that we’re frankly having difficulty trying to supply the assets because we’re short of pilots, we’re short of cabin crew, we’re short of just about everything. But there’s no shortage of demand, it’s a really good story.”
Clark highlighted the difficulties Emirates was dealing with in hiring sufficient employees to satisfy this demand, after it laid of swathes of employees amid the pandemic.
“You’re talking about supply chain disruptions, you’re talking about gross distortion in the labor markets,” he stated, including that he anticipated some sense of normality to return in direction of the top of 2022 and into early 2023. “I think then … the heat will come out of the situation. I hope, anyway.”
Another potential headwind for airways is increased oil costs. The demand shock sparked by the Covid pandemic noticed Brent costs fall to $20 a barrel; they’re now buying and selling over $80 a barrel.
But Clark stated he was not fazed. “Of course, $80 – we’ve been there before. We’ve been much higher than that before,” he added. “At the moment, we’re managing it. It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen; I think we’ve got about 15 months of turbulence, but we’ll be alright.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Joseph contributed to this report.
