Sir Tim Clark received valuable backing from Willie Walsh, the head of International Air Transport Association, for Emirates airline's stance on Heathrow slashing passenger numbers.
Heathrow last week asked airlines to stop selling some tickets for summer flights, limiting the number of passengers flying from the hub to 100,000 a day to ease pressure on operations that have been unable to keep up with demand.
"We said we can't do that and we won't do that," said Sir Tim at a panel at Farnborough Airshow on Monday, days after Emirates and Heathrow Airport issued a joint statement on the crisis engulfing the UK's passenger hub.
Sir Tim criticised Heathrow managers for failing to anticipate the travel rebound until it was too late. He said Heathrow had given Emirates 36 hours from Wednesday to reduce capacity on its six daily flights, which are operated with the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
The president of the Dubai-based airline believes the badly disrupted air travel industry could return to equilibrium in 2023, but that the airlines must "tough it out" until then. Emirates could eventually look at transferring one of its six daily Heathrow flights to London Gatwick as part of an agreement to relieve pressure.
Mr Walsh, who represents the industry in his post-International Airlines Group career, said the management of Heathrow was "a bunch of idiots" for failing to foresee the recovery post-pandemic and the opening up of global business and tourism. "All you had to do was count up the tickets," he said. "Tim was selling six A380s [tickets] per day."
"I am surprised Heathrow have not been able to get their act together better than this. Airlines have been predicting stronger traffic than Heathrow has been predicting ... they clearly got it completely wrong," Mr Walsh added. "To tell airlines to stop selling — what a ridiculous thing for an airport to say to an airline."
Farnborough Airshow - in pictures
The pair were commenting after Emirates on Thursday angrily rejected demands by Heathrow to cut capacity — despite the threat of legal action. "The way we left it with Heathrow (was that) today we still have our six flights operating," Sir Tim said of the possibility of Emirates transferring one of its six daily Heathrow flights to London Gatwick. "What I needed to do with them was to look at how we can possibly switch over one of the flights into Gatwick."
Last-minute airport curbs are more complicated for Emirates than many European carriers because of the large variety of destinations served beyond its Dubai hub. This means passengers coming from across the globe can be affected, Sir Tim said.
"Anybody who does this to us obviously is going to incur our wrath ... this is totally unacceptable," he added.
"We still have to go into battle with regards to some of the draconian measures (that) they are insisting on taking and I don't really want it to get any more ugly than it has been."
The airline and airport later announced a deal to cap further sales on flights out of Heathrow through mid-August. “[Emirates] is ready and willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation over the next two weeks, to keep demand and capacity in balance and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey through Heathrow this summer,” the joint statement said. “Emirates has capped further sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August to assist Heathrow in its resource ramp-up, and is working to adjust capacity.”
Heathrow blames airlines for failing to secure enough ground handlers. Emirates says its own ground-handling unit is ready and blames the problems on central staff shortages at Heathrow.
"Heathrow is well-prepared for this summer," an airport spokesman said. "We started recruiting security officers in November last year and will soon have as many people in security as in summer 2019.
"The fact that Heathrow’s cap is 50 per cent higher than a similar cap at Amsterdam, our nearest rival, shows how much better we have planned than our competitors.”
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
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