Emirates President On The Future Of Aviation

I believe that someone should mention that they fired more than 100 pregnant crew ,leaving them with no medical insurance in the middle of their pregnancy(!) For sure COVID-19 has had a huge impact on aviation but a company never lets go pregnant ladies, I wonder whether these 100 redundant pregnant crew made any difference financially to the company now that they stayed without medical insurance and no job? Maybe it would have been better not to lay off people in need next time.

So, who made the decision to buy more than 100 A380’s? Under whose watch? Tim Clark?

There is a lot of adulation here from the fanboy club of STC, much of which I take issue with. STC has always been self righteous and confident in his decision making, yet fails to see the error of his ways in his stewardship of EK. The company has lost direction in recent years, relying on thin margins and low operating costs to generate modest profits in lucrative times. The full year results published just yesterday show just a 1.6% profit margin on revenue of AED 104bn. It always was a risk to defy rational wisdom and order a fleet of behemoth aircraft, which left the airline exposed to any downturns and unable to reduce capacity quickly on thinner routes. Agreed Covid-19 is a black swan event, but even prior to the virus, there were signs that at least a slowdown was probable, yet EK failed to position itself. His statement that the A380 era is over and the way forward is contrary to what he was quoted just a few months ago in November. He criticises BA for not ordering 'hundreds' of A380, and admonishes Airbus for cancelling the program. I agree the world has massively changed, but STC has left EK with an unnecessary exposure to the retraction in demand, and lacked foresight. Furthermore his two lieutenants groomed to take over, Christoph Mueller, and Thierry Antinori, both left in the past couple of years so the management of change is in limbo. One thing that I am very much in agreement with is the post by Nicola, reference Sir Maurice Flanagan. He was amazing to work with, and the true pioneer for Emirates. I have the utmost respect for him.

@Mike I can't agree with you about the A380 being a flop. It probably was and still is almost a perfect airplane for EK in the sense that they do long haul hub destinations. They also use cramped versions for moving workers in and out. Airbus rushed to be first and Boeing wisely chose not to compete in the Super Jumbo race. So for many routes the 380 is a money maker but it might have been better if a more fuel-efficient airplane plane had been adopted. But for much of EK's route map it was certainly a successful moneymaker. With so few airlines adopting the 747-8 we don't hear much about the bottom line. It didn't have the pizazz of the 380 so for EK wasn't an obvious choice but in the long run might have been better.

@Mike I am so curious to know more about your credentials to understand how you came up to these conclusions. I live in Dubai since 2004 and beside being obviously a customer since 16 years, I know many people working for Emirates. I know about their policies, commercial strategies and ethics. Dubai is not Qatar or Abu Dhabi. Did not have back then and even less today, the capability to subsidize a multibillion dollar business. But I know people ready to pay more in order to fly with Emirates and for endless number of reasons. However it's a free world and everyone deserves to have a say.