What’s next for the aviation industry? Emirates president on sustainability and the Middle East

euronews (in English)

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.

Transcript

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.

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