Emirates airline President Sir Tim Clarke sits down with Euronews to talk about the future of the aviation industry in the wake of the pandemic.
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00:00 Given another 10 years, you and me traveling on airplanes will be totally revolutionized
00:05 by technology.
00:17 Hello and welcome to this edition of The Agenda.
00:21 In this episode, we're joined by Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline.
00:26 Sir Tim, pleasure to meet you today.
00:29 Thank you for having us.
00:30 Tell us first of all about Emirates' new plans for their fleet expansion.
00:35 Well, we've just ordered another 90 777s of the 9 and the 8 variants.
00:43 We've increased our existing 787 order to 35.
00:46 So we've got in total now 245 Boeing aircraft on order and 50 A350s which start being delivered
00:54 next year.
00:55 So that's part and parcel of the expansion of our network over the next 10 or 15 years.
01:00 The refreshing, hopefully, nature of our product going forward and also the retirement of some
01:07 of the old fleet.
01:08 So it's a combination of a number of things, but hopefully we'll be by the mid-30s in a
01:14 situation where the airline will have expanded probably by, well, almost doubled actually,
01:19 to be quite honest.
01:21 We've had a very cautious few years.
01:23 What is the state now of the aviation industry and the global travel industry as well?
01:27 Well, I think you'll read that post-COVID it's been really strong.
01:32 Apart from certain areas, and they are quite large areas such as the US, demand remains
01:37 very strong.
01:38 Price points obviously are quite high at the moment.
01:41 We don't see any fall off of that over the next, certainly over the next year.
01:46 But it's anybody's guess.
01:47 I've been in this business an awful long time and it comes and goes.
01:51 Then you manage the rough with the smooth and do what you have to do.
01:55 So far, so good.
01:56 The Middle East is really potent now in terms of economic activity.
02:00 A lot of inward investment, a lot of wealth generation going on in Saudi Arabia, of course,
02:06 and in the states around.
02:07 Do you think the geopolitical events that are taking place around the region are going
02:10 to impact travel?
02:11 Look, again, when I look back in the 38 years that Emirates has been flying, we started
02:16 in the middle of the Iraq-Iran war.
02:19 We've seen two other great wars on our doorstep.
02:23 But nevertheless, the model has been scaled, operationalized, irrespective of what has
02:28 gone on.
02:29 Now, what's going on at the moment is grim.
02:32 I'll be the first to admit that, and of course everybody else would agree.
02:36 But the fact of the matter is we lost Yemen, we lost Syria, we lost Libya, we lost Iraq.
02:41 And we kind of navigate our way around those things.
02:44 What efforts are Emirates making in terms of the passenger experience with an ever so
02:48 savvy audience now traveling?
02:50 You know, we've been using AI for quite a long time.
02:52 Machine learning we've been doing for 10 years.
02:54 We've got a whole bunch of boffins in our company whose task it is to take all the data
03:00 they capture and do wonderful things with it.
03:02 And they do.
03:03 And it helps us.
03:04 It already informs a lot of the decisions that we are making based on that kind of thing.
03:07 So for instance, in the airports of the future, and hopefully we're going to build one here,
03:11 when you get out of your car or whatever you do, you'll drop your bag.
03:15 That's the last you'll see of it until you get to the other end.
03:18 And you'll just keep walking.
03:19 There will be no check-in.
03:21 There will be no central search.
03:22 There will certainly be no immigration.
03:25 So imagine the delight.
03:26 And this is all driven by technology, which we can do today.
03:30 But we haven't scaled it at pace.
03:32 Sustainability is core to Emirates.
03:34 You know, how are you making efforts to reduce carbon emissions?
03:40 We're doing it in a number of ways, actually.
03:43 Decarbonizing air travel is always going to be a big ask.
03:45 It's going to be very difficult to do.
03:46 But in the areas around what we do, it's not to say we don't buy fuel-efficient aircraft.
03:51 We just bought a load.
03:52 We've got fuel-efficient aircraft coming in.
03:55 But in certain areas, it's just not going to cut it.
03:58 We're a long way off from getting aircraft that will fly on zero-emission fuel.
04:05 We can introduce SAF.
04:06 We can do all sorts of business, which is what we're doing.
04:08 The ambitions to be net zero by 2050, do you think that's achievable for the industry?
04:14 We set ourselves a task.
04:15 We're on a journey there.
04:17 Now, as long as we do the right thing and try hard as we can, then in the end, that
04:23 target is a date that possibly could come forward.
04:27 It could go backwards.
04:28 But start moving in that direction.
04:31 What do you foresee being the biggest challenge in the next five years for the industry?
04:35 Ah, well, let me just say, for Emirates, it's our inability to expand at the pace that we
04:39 would like to.
04:40 This industry is here to stay.
04:42 Do the right thing, concentrate on getting the sweet spot of product.
04:47 Remain laser-focused on doing what you think you're going to provide and add value to your
04:51 shareholders and also to your… and you'll be fine.
04:54 You'll be fine.
04:55 So, Tim, thank you so much for talking to us today.
04:57 Pleasure, as always.
04:58 You're welcome.