Clark said Emirates could eventually look at transferring one of its six daily Heathrow flights to London Gatwick
FARNBOROUGH. The president of Dubai-based Emirates airline, which has come into conflict with London's Heathrow airport over the introduction of capacity restrictions, said on Monday that the shattered airline industry will return to balance in 2023 and must "withstand it" until then.
Tim Clark, speaking at an event at the Farnborough Airshow, criticised Heathrow managers for failing to anticipate an increase in the number of flights until it was too late, which led to delays.
Problems with air traffic also played a role. "There are many, many latecomers," Clark told aerospace executives.
The comments came after Emirates on Thursday angrily rejected Heathrow's demands to cut capacity and promised to keep six daily A380 superjumbo flights.
Later, the airline and the airport announced a deal to limit sales on flights from Heathrow until mid-August.
Clarke said Emirates may eventually consider moving one of its six daily Heathrow flights to London Gatwick as part of a pressure relief agreement.
"The way we parted ways with Heathrow (was that) we still have our six flights operating today. What I needed to do with them was to see how we could switch to one of the flights to Gatwick."
According to Clark, last-minute airport restrictions are more difficult for Emirates than for many European carriers, due to the wide variety of destinations served outside the Dubai hub, which means passengers arriving from all over the world may be affected.
"Anyone who does this to us will obviously incur our wrath ... this is completely unacceptable," he added.
"We still have to go into battle regarding some draconian measures (that) they insist on, and I really don't want it to get any uglier than it was."
Heathrow accuses airlines of not providing enough ground operators. Emirates says its own ground handling unit is ready, and blames a shortage of central staff at Heathrow for the problems.
"Heathrow is well prepared for this summer. We started recruiting security personnel in November last year, and soon there will be as many people in the security service as in the summer of 2019," the airport representative said.
"The fact that the limit at Heathrow is 50% higher than the similar limit in Amsterdam, our closest competitor, shows how much better we have planned than our competitors.”
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