Emirates has implemented extra cleaning and safety measures on flights in the wake of Covid-19. The Carrier's president Tim Clark says urgent action is needed to help global airlines restart operations. Courtesy Emirates
Emirates has implemented extra cleaning and safety measures on flights in the wake of Covid-19. The Carrier's president Tim Clark says urgent action is needed to help global airlines restart operations. Courtesy Emirates
Emirates has implemented extra cleaning and safety measures on flights in the wake of Covid-19. The Carrier's president Tim Clark says urgent action is needed to help global airlines restart operations. Courtesy Emirates
Emirates has implemented extra cleaning and safety measures on flights in the wake of Covid-19. The Carrier's president Tim Clark says urgent action is needed to help global airlines restart operation

Airlines are not out of the woods and urgent government action is required, Tim Clark says


Sarmad Khan
  • English
  • Arabic

Emirates airline president Tim Clark urged governments to take immediate action to restart aviation and avert the collapse of operators that have already been bailed out as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

“It is important that governments understand – I am sure they are aware of other priorities in their economies – but this [aviation] business is at a critical and very fragile state at the moment and it needs all the help it can get,” Mr Clark told the Arabian Travel Market, which was held by video conference, on Monday.

He said lifelines for airlines were needed, otherwise “I am not optimistic that some of the [airlines] that are here today, and have already been significantly bailed out, will get through the next few months”.

Ensuring that airlines, passengers and freight are moving again is necessary for the aviation industry, whose biggest priority right now is to survive the crisis.

Covid-19 has disrupted global supply chains, brought the travel industry to a halt and forced governments to close borders and shut all but essential businesses.

The world economy is set to contract by 3 per cent this year and slide into a deep recession, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Governments are gradually relaxing restrictions and reopening economies four months after the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

However, restrictions such as mandatory quarantine on arrival in some countries such as the UK, and limited cross-border access in regions such as Europe, Asia and North America will dampen the recovery of the travel industry.

Airlines face a severe liquidity crisis and bankruptcy after revenue dried up because of reduced capacity or passenger flight suspensions.

Mr Clark said the longer planes remain grounded, the closer an airline would get to “a point of no return”.

“A lot of the current fleet today is [geared] on debt ... [through] all sort of financial structures. The notion that you will simply ground them and say that is OK, it is not,” he said.

“You have contractual obligations ... and this is the real problem. The trick is to get them flying and generating the income as quickly as possible.”

Mr Clark said aircraft manufacturers were already seeing the signs that further orders are being delayed or cancelled.

“Unfortunately, until we get income coming back to this business, to the levels prior to Covid-19, it is anybody’s guess how each [airline] is going to manage [business in the] short, medium and long term.”

He said airlines are “nowhere confident enough” of the current economic situation and their cash flows to order jets.

“Will it come back [aircraft orders] in 2023 to 2024? Probably, but I don’t think it will happen before that,” Mr Clark said.

Despite headwinds, Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, plans a gradual return to operations in the coming months.

The airline resumed regular passenger flights to nine destinations – London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne – from May 21, the first regular, non-repatriation flights out of Dubai since March 24.

It has also opened bookings for flights to 12 Arab countries from July.

Mr Clark said he does not see a meaningful sharp increase in demand until next summer, provided a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed by early 2021 and an inoculation programme carried out.

It will, however, take the airline a few years before it can go back to pre-outbreak levels of operations, he said.

“I think probably by 2022-23, 2023-24, we will see things coming back to some degree of normality and Emirates will be operating its network as it was, and hopefully, as successfully as it was,” he said.

The airline, Mr Clark said, will continue to work closely with low-cost airline flydubai.

“On the flydubai side of things, irrespective of Covid-19, the plan was to ... extract route synergies ... both [airlines] are working far, far closer together. That was the ongoing process until we got to the hard stop,” he said. “As soon as we get through this, that bridging, that building will continue.”

Mr Clark said the intention going forward is to assess where this relationship can be activated a little bit more “meaningfully, more profitably” so that the two airlines can continue to grow together.

On Emirates’ working relationship with Etihad Airways, Mr Clark said the Abu Dhabi airline is going through a reorganisation phase. He said the two airlines will discuss co-operation once Etihad has reached its desired size.

Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

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INFO

Visit www.wtatennis.com for more information

 

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20NOTHING%20PHONE%20(2)
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How has net migration to UK changed?

The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.

It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.

The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.

War and the virus
Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

RESULT

Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Three ways to get a gratitude glow

By committing to at least one of these daily, you can bring more gratitude into your life, says Ong.

  • During your morning skincare routine, name five things you are thankful for about yourself.
  • As you finish your skincare routine, look yourself in the eye and speak an affirmation, such as: “I am grateful for every part of me, including my ability to take care of my skin.”
  • In the evening, take some deep breaths, notice how your skin feels, and listen for what your skin is grateful for.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

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Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.