Clark To Leave Emirates in Mid-2020

Sir Tim Clark is to retire from his position as president of Emirates in June 2020 but will stay on at the airline as a consultant to help smooth the path of his successor.

Since taking up his present position in 2003, Clark, who turned 70 in November, has overseen the transformation of Emirates from a sleepy regional carrier into one of the world’s premier international airlines. He began his career with British Caledonian before making a name for himself as a route planner with Gulf Air, to become a member of Emirates’ founding team in 1985.

What has been noticeable under Clark has been Emirates’ continued profitability, even in the dark days of 2008-10, and ever-expanding fleet. The airline has been profitable for 31 years straight. As of December 10, Emirates had 113 A380s in the fleet, 144 B777s, and 12 freighters, with a further 216 aircraft on order, including 60 A380s and 126 Boeing 777Xs. In the financial year to March 31, the airline saw revenue of $26.7 billion, and a profit of $237 million.

An apparently effortless command of all aspects of the global airline market informed his comments in frequent television interviews, conference appearances, and interactions with print journalists. Clark turned himself into the rock on which so much of the UAE-based airline’s confidence stemmed.

In 2015, he rejected the accusations of American airlines that Emirates, and by implication, other Gulf-based carriers, had obtained massive government subsidies to sustain operations. He was able to show that the "Big Three" U.S. carriers, American, United, and Delta, had seen quarterly profits increase 562 percent in a recent 12-month period and that Emirates while benefiting from capital injections of $218 million from the government of Dubai, had returned almost £3.4 billion in dividends to its owner.

He oversaw a new relationship with Australia’s Qantas Airlines that began in 2013, eschewing the wider global alliances such as One World, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance. In his view, they do not always operate in the best interests of the traveling public, and would have acted to block Emirates’ access to certain routes, had they taken place. As a result, Qantas' business in Europe quickly increased six-fold.

He held the position of managing director of Sri Lankan Airlines until 2008, but Emirates sold that stake after preferring to let full ownership and management of the airline move back into government hands.

It remains to be seen whether Emirates’ business model will guarantee a superior market position going into the next decade. What the airline referred to as “cutthroat competition” around the world, led by a new generation of low-cost long-haul carriers, promises to complicate the life of Clark’s successor.

“The big challenge is swelling growth and far more competitive international carriers that are equipping themselves with the latest long-range equipment for point-to-point flights,” Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, in Fairfax, Virginia, told an aviation blog when the retirement was announced.

Clark hinted in an interview with Airline Ratings in November that Emirates’ chief operating officer, Adel Al Redha, and chief commercial officer, Adnan Kazim, were both candidates to replace him. Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of Flydubai, whose operations have increasingly dovetailed with Emirates in the past decade, is also believed to be in the running.

“If I could get a UAE national to replace me it would be good,” he said. “Running a company this size by an ex-pat is a bit embarrassing. We have a very strong cadre in our senior management, both national and expatriate. Now we are far more mature in our ability to deal with the succession.”