Emirates President Tim Clark Is Retiring

The rumour has been around all year. Even money favourite to take over is Ghaith Al Ghaith, currently boss at flyDubai.

I am more interested to know what his retirement package is.

Isn't Emirates Chairman the REAL driving force behind Emirates success over the years? I understood that all the chairmen were the real people doing the hard work in the Middle East

He will be sorely missed

- An EK flyer

Kudos to him! I started flying Emirates since mid-2000s and even back then the flights were pleasant and felt premium even in economy (mainly due to the on-demand IFE which was a luxury back then but was available in economy class.)
I'll admit I wasn't sure whether Emirates would survive the global recession ten years ago but it did. I hope he enjoys his well earned retirement!

Won't this pave the way for a EK/QR merger? Akbar al Baker would be a great ceo for this mega airline.

Will Ed Bastian be a candidate to fill Clark's shoes? LOL

Emirates is what it is today because of the great vision and tireless execution of the vision into reality by Sir Tim Clark. No airline executive can be compared to the boundless zeal with which Sir Tim Clark transformed Emirates and the modern Dubai as it is today. Even after retirement, I am sure Sir Tim Clark will be involved in some capacity in guiding Emirates to retain its premier position in the airline world. Happy retirement.

Nothing but respect for a person that came with one vision, and one vision alone: to connect the world in a comfortable way regardless of the class flown.

Economy of Scope and Economy of Scale without treating passengers as second rate citizens. His vision of comfortable travel and seamless transfer through Dubai and the birth of 747-400 made Emirates into what they are today.

Hats off.

It will be impossible to fit Sir Clark’s shoes simply because the loyalty between him and the company can’t be matched. Emirates is his baby as it was for another aviation legend, Maurice Flanagan, who passed away shortly agate right his retirement at Emirates. For both of them Emirates was a life mission and not just a job. Tim Clark is retiring over 15 years before Flanagan did and probably is the right thing to do.

Perhaps Doug Parker can take the reins of Emirates

@Tango Victor

While I agree that Tim Clark does deserve a lot of praise for building EK in to a giant, the rest I'm not sure what stuff are you smoking.

I never remember Emirates ever fly any passenger 747 let alone a 747-400. (Unless your experience of comfortable was in a cargo pallet)

I also think comfortable way is not part of his vision. EK is among the first who introduced 3-4-3 in economy when most others are still flying 3-3-3 and among the last to still fly 2-3-2 in business. EK got away by distracting passengers with ICE.
The A380 was the real game changer. People everywhere wanted to try the novelty of the shower. Before that was just cheap attractive fares for a decent experience even in business or first.

He deserves and enormous amount of credit for making EK the default airline for long haul international travel. He used the deep pockets of the UAE as well as a then new DXB to outcompete the EU3 on most long distance city pairs. He leaves EK at the top with a competitive product, an accessible and efficient hub as well as scale that nobody can match for a while. The future looks more murky for them with DXB filling up and the quality of service starting to lag. QR is their biggest threat with a more efficient fleet, a brand new hub at DOH and equally deep pocketed backers. This battle should prove great for long haul premium travelers and I look forward to many more flights on both in the future.

Hmm.. sure he did a good job but he has had it very easy. With investors with unlimited spending power and a cheap labor force on highly restricted contracts, the vision can be very easily achieved. Would he have been able to the same for a western airline like those in the US?

@Rebecca

Yes you are right. There is a reason you don't see hundreds of A380s, not even one. He probably can't replicate EK in the US. He still deserve some credit when it's due.

Do you think Doug Parker can replicate this with any ME3?
Do you think Jeff Smisek can grow an airline even with oil subsidy?
Do you think Ed Bastian will ever offer premium products yet still undercut competition?

He played a huge role putting DXB and EK on the map.

I can't think of any other industry where the customers have such weirdly emotional attachments to CEOs despite not actually knowing much at all about what they do...

@Callum

You might be right.
We probably all think that every CEO does nothing but looking at share prices and counting cash. Maybe signing some contracts and pocket some kickback or doing a favor for few board members to always get the vote. Besides that is just flying around the world in the corporate jet, dining at 3 star restaurants and banging interns at 5 star hotel suites. While at home the partner is going on a shopping spree everyday and the kids go to Ivy league schools. When the company collapse, you get a big fat $50 million severance package while thousands of your employees get kicked into the streets. Did I say banging more interns?

Yes, you might be right. We actually don't know much at all about what they do…
So tell us please what do CEOs really do?
And do people don't get emotional with other industry CEO such as say the late Steve Jobs? How about Rupert Murdoch? Then there is Doug "lol" Parker.

It would be nice if @Callum can clarify.

Yes Please Tango Victor , please explain what you mean by the 747-400 importance in DXB: development in general and EK in particular ?

There's an ex CEO of Boeing who may be looking for a job!

Sir Tim Clark is a remarkable man who helped make Emirates the great airline it is today. Like all great men with great achievements, he deserves to have a chance to retire and enjoy his retirement.