Emirates President Tim Clark warned that the aviation industry is in «uncharted territory» as U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and trade disputes weigh on global growth and threaten to drive up costs for airlines worldwide.
«Right now, we are in troubled times,» Clark told CNBC in an interview recorded March 20 — ahead of Washington’s announcement of its latest global levies.
«It’s uncharted because it involves a measure of reset to a level that the global economy probably hasn’t seen since the financial crisis of 2008-2009,» Clark said, pointing to growing pressures on carriers and to the ripple effect across the aviation supply chain.
Clark, who has led Emirates for more than two decades, helped grow the Dubai-based carrier into the world’s largest long haul airline, steering it through the post-9/11 downturn, the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse in travel demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
«It’s early days to see what effect the resetting of the terms of trade will have on the global economy and ergo discretionary demand for leisure travel,» he said, adding that, despite the tariffs rattling global markets, both Emirates and the industry can weather the storm.
«Business models like Emirates, given the international scope of what it does, the strength of what it does, will be able to ride this particular wave,» he said…
