Emirates expects all its aircraft to be flying in 2 years

The president of Emirates expects to have all its planes flying in two years’ time, including its fleet of A380 superjumbo jets. Tim Clark, who heads the Dubai-based carrier, said its current fleet of A380s, which will cease to be manufactured from next year, would continue to play an important part in the airline’s future. He said the carrier, one of the world’s largest, was planning to fully deploy all its aircraft in the summer of 2022 based on its outlook for a recovery in air travel to take up to two years. Clark dismissed suggestions that Emirates would permanently decommission a large portion of its 115-strong A380 fleet. “At the moment, I’ve got 115 sitting there. We’ve always known that up until that point in time . . . in 2022 there are going to be a number that will have to go into long-term storage,” he said. “We’re not getting rid of any of them apart from I think three that are coming out and nine 777s that were scheduled to come out this year.” He added that the A380 had a “place in the Emirates international network on the scale it has before. Albeit not today or fully next year, but the year after I think there will be a place for it and I think it is going to be extremely popular.” Clark would not comment on how many job cuts the airline will have to make. “All I will say is that the optimistic [business] scenario is driving what we do now and therefore the business has to be structured in such a way on the basis of that way forward.”  <br/>