- Tim Clark helped create a flight in 1985 and has been its president since 2003.
- The airline fly from Dubai to 12 American airports, as well as dozens of cities worldwide.
- Clark says if he “gets to know” her “workers”, they take care of you “in return.
Dubai has grown about 10 times since the founding of the Emirates 40 years ago. Among the founding team of the airline Tim Clark, which was its president for more than two decades.
Initially, the emerging carrier was not “taken seriously.”
This began to change as soon as the aircraft manufacturers realize that Dubai is in a perfect mode almost in the middle of the road between Europe and the Middle East-and that the UAE is determined to get rid of long flight.
“We have considered crazy people, but we succeeded in persuading the forces that are in both Airbus and Boeing, which were dangerous and fatal,” Clark says.
In addition to aircraft that could fly non -stop from Dubai to the likes of Los Angeles, Sidney and Oakland, he wanted a cabin closer to private planes.
This led to innovations such as first -class wings with sliding doors in the late 1990s that are now “De Rigueur everywhere. I hope I have a patent on that, but we have never done so. They are now in business class as well.
The rise of the UAE as a global flight force reflects the rise of Dubai, which Clark is called “global mitropolis”. It has become a “great place to do business” in addition to serving the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, especially Saudi Arabia.
A380 airline at Dubai Airport.
The UAE
It also made 96 flights per week from 12 American airports to Dubai, it is easy for Americans to reach destinations such as Zanzibar, Mauritius or Seychelles. Clark believes that there is a lot of growth in North America: “We have just started. We now have multiple points there, but there is a lot that comes.”
The UAE’s expansion was somewhat restricted by the availability of a new plane. Clark says that the delivery delays for the new Boeing 777X prompted the airline to spend $ 4.5 billion “on all old 777s and re -adjusts it.” He adds: To keep his fleet, which includes about 250 passengers, “you have to make up update.”
It also upgrades many A30S, which took it for the first time in 2008. Later on to the Premier League, compared to other airlines, it appeared only in the UAE in August 2022.
Emirates Airlines has added a distinct economic cabin to many of its aircraft, including A380s.
Ryan LIM/AFP/Getty Images
However, the business degree may always be a large part of Airbus Double-Decker-even if Clark hates the name.
When companies travel budgets were reduced after the 2008 financial crisis, he says that older customers in particular began to fly in business “in a way that we could not believe.”
People “want to go, see and enjoy … for this reason, I keep optimistic that the request will continue at the pace that it restricts, with all these things that we talked about regarding supply.”
The UAE is constantly occupying one of the best airlines in the world, despite last year, the air transport company in the Middle East competing in the world crowned the world’s best airline award by Skytrax. Qatar pushed Singaporean Airlines to second, while the UAE ranked third.
Dubai has a population of about 6 million.
Owngarden/Getty Images
One of the UAE’s advantages on most competitors is the ability to employ the 23,000 cabin crew from anywhere in the world. “This is part of the essence of our model,” says Clark.
Dubai describes as a “truly famous city” for many workers-and there is no doubt that the salaries exempt from taxes, generous rewards and residence offer are part of the attractiveness of some as well.
“Although its training program” requires it very, “it is a update all the time,” Clark: “We try to believe that by offering a somewhat innovative pile of products, which we try to change regularly, that children In fact they are really interested in what they are doing. “We take care of them. We care about their well -being.”
When asked about the place where Boeing lost his way, his advice to CEO Kelly Ordberg is better treatment of workers. Clark said that if you “admit” its people, “they take care of you.
Tim Clark is in a first -class suite from one Boeing 777 in 2018.
Christian Charisius/Picure Alliance/Getty Images
Clark was in the airline for more than half a century, as he started in the British Calidonian in 1972 before moving to Gulf air in Bahrain for a decade. So why is he still working at the age of 75?
He says he thought about walking during the epidemic, but he adds: “I couldn’t leave it. With these men I was working for 20 years.
“Frankly, will work with this team of people who work? Of course I will … so I will find a balance at some point, but I will go.”
The airline recorded a profit before the tax of $ 2.6 billion for the six months until September, an increase of 2 %, on revenues of about $ 17 billion, and Clark expects “another very good year” in 2025 but notes: “anything can happen. Well, Airlines is an unpredictable work, right? “
