It will be summer of 2021 before air travel returns to growth path, says Emirates chief

A marked improvement in air travel might need to wait until summer of 2021, according to Emirates airline’s President. “We will start to see an uptick, quite a large uptick in demand," Tim Clark said, adding that Emirates would be able to get its fleet ready within 48 hours if it had to. I think probably by the year 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." The airline was flying to 157 destinations in 83 countries before it grounded passenger flights in March and has since operated limited services. Emirates has warned that the current period would be the most difficult in its 35-year history, and on Sunday said it had made some staff redundant due to the impact of the pandemic. Clark said physical distancing on planes was not economically and environmentally practical because it would mean flying aircraft half empty. Emirates will for now continue to ask passengers to wear gloves and face masks onboard, he said. And he does not believe “corporate travel will diminish”.<br/>