Major development in air travel including green technology is still possible despite the devastating industry shocks caused by Covid-19 and the two recent fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 Max planes, Emirates president Tim Clark said on Wednesday.
While conceding that the short-term outlook was not good and that the industry needed time to recover, he pointed to signs a Covid-19 vaccine could be on the horizon as evidence that much could be achieved by the brain “when it really needs to put its mind to it”.
Mr Clark was speaking during a webinar at the virtual Farnborough Airshow, which was moved online after the UK event was cancelled amid the pandemic.
“I always remain optimistic that we have the capability, we have the creativity, we have the intellectual powers to come and address and produce aircraft that in 50 years’ time will shock and stun us,” he said.
“I really believe, give it three or four years - let’s have a look at how we go about dealing with the environmental aspect, which is a really good thing to happen to all of us because it’s making us really think hard about what we need to do.”
“It’s a bit like this development of the vaccine for Covid-19. It’s accelerated at such a pace.”
While its full roster of summer flights has not quite returned, Emirates is still set to fly to 60 destinations this summer.
