The Emirates company received $2 billion from Dubai's government

Emirates to operate entire Fleet by the end of 2021

photo_camera AFP/ISHARA S. KODIKARA - Emirates Airline

Emirates expects its full fleet of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s to be in use by the end of the year as the rollout of coronavirus vaccines renews confidence in travel. Several countries have started or announced programs to inoculate residents, with some believing they can vaccinate a majority of their population this year.

Emirates President Tim Clark has repeatedly said a vaccination program would be vital to any recovery for the travel industry, which saw demand collapse in 2020, causing serious problems for the economies most dependent on this sector.

The 71-year-old Clark, who has delayed his retirement to tackle the crisis, said on Wednesday he did not think a recent wave of new infections and restrictions in some countries would further impede the recovery.

“Once the pandemic is over and the global inoculation program has kicked in at pace, then I see the restoration and a recapture of activity curves in all aspects of the global economy at pace, probably in the middle to back end of this year," Clark told Reuters news agency. 

Emirates is currently flying 17 of its 115 A380s and 137 of its 160 777s, with some passenger jets operating as cargo planes. Last week, Emirates was flying to about 120 destinations, compared to 157 before the pandemic.

“We’re in a good place with the fleet that we have, albeit not as highly utilised as it was prior to the pandemic, to start operating again as soon as the doors open with regards to accessibility to the markets,” Clark said.

Emirates reported a $3.4 billion half-year loss and received $2 billion from the Dubai government to help it through crisis.

Tim Clark is confident that the company will be profitable again by the end of the year and will not require further financial assistance from the government thereafter.  

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As for the new plane the airline was planning to launch in June 2020, Clark on Wednesday said Boeing Co’s 777X might not enter into service with airlines until 2023 or even later.  

Emirates originally ordered 150 of the 777X series, which seats up to 406 people, and now has 126 on order. Analysts say the COVID-19 crisis has clouded the demand for such big jets.

“It is a question of when that aircraft is going to be completed and certified and offered for entry of service. That could be ‘22, could be ‘23, it could be even longer,” Clark told Reuters in an interview. “So we will just wait and see as to what Boeing will do with regard to that and we will take a view as to how they fit into the fleet at that particular time.”

European regulators have said in particular that they will subject the 777X to extra scrutiny after the fatal crashes prompted the 20-month grounding of the 737 MAX.

The MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months in 2018 and 2019 and triggered multiple investigations and weakened U.S. influence over global aviation. 

In the wake of the unfortunate accidents, Boeing was accused of being favored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. government entity responsible for all civil aviation regulation.  

Clark said a crisis over crashes of its 737 MAX had damaged the air travel industry as a whole. “Boeing need to take a good hard look at themselves; I’m sure they have," he said. 

Emirates's President, one of the world's leading and most widely purchased airlines, backed the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for taking a “very hard line” over the re-design to avoid further failures in the future.  

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