Emirates Airlines President, Tim Clark, has expressed his concern about the emergence of a fourth wave of the Corona virus coming from Europe, which is the focus of the airline.
And, according to Arabiya Net, Clark told CNBC, on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow: I see a fourth wave coming and we have all kinds of concerns about what might happen.
He added: We have to look at the matter very carefully, especially since the European markets, which have already begun to open up greatly, will begin to change their direction.. It will be a problem, which must be dealt with.
This comes, while the World Health Organization warned, earlier this month, of the return of Europe again as the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, as Germany reported a rise in injuries to about 50,000 new cases per day, and cases increased in France.
Meanwhile, Austria is expected to restore lockdown rules to millions of unvaccinated people, in an effort to contain rising infections.
Emirates Airlines hopes that the Dubai Airshow - the first major aviation exhibition to be held since the beginning of the Corona pandemic - will represent a turning point for the sector after a devastating period.
In turn, the International Air Transport Association said last month that the global aviation sector is expected to lose nearly $120 billion next year.
The association, which represents nearly 300 airlines that operate more than 80% of air traffic in the world, added that industry losses in 2020 were worse than initial forecasts, reaching 137.7 billion dollars.
However, Clark said Emirates is already seeing a surge in demand and is starting to turn a profit.
He added: We are recovering our strength quickly, and I can say that the demand is returning at a pace that makes it difficult for us to meet it due to the lack of some assets such as pilots and flight crews.
Clark highlighted the difficulties Emirates is facing in hiring enough staff to meet this demand, after large numbers of staff were laid off amid the pandemic. However, he expected some sense of normalcy to return by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
He believes that the concerns that airlines may face are related to high oil prices, as the demand shock raised by the Corona pandemic led to a drop in oil prices to $ 20 a barrel, but it quickly rose to more than $ 80 currently.
Clark did not express his concern about the recent rise in oil prices, as he said that these levels were experienced before, but were much higher than that..At the moment, the current prices are being dealt with, but no one can guess what will happen.
He expected that the market turmoil will continue for about 15 months, stressing that the company will be safe from these turmoil.
