The president of Emirates Airline has revealed that his boss, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, often travels in economy class.
In an interview with the BBC, Sir Tim Clark surprised the interviewer, saying Sheikh Ahmed, Emirates chairman, did not always travel first class.
“My Sheikh has often travelled in economy… and I’ve travelled with him in economy as well,” said Clark.
He also said that the drop in the oil price had halved the airline’s fuel costs.
“Where we had 43 percent costs at one point were fuel, they’re about half that now, so we have benefited from that. But the airline industry races to the bottom with regard to its pricing and as a result all of the fares have come down and the yields have fallen, so it’s a much better position than it was, but it’s not as good as people would think.”
As the oil producing Middle Eastern countries are having to deal with 75 percent fall in the price of oil over the last three to five years, they’ve had to trim their economies, he added.
Speaking to reporters at an aviation conference in Berlin last month, he said bookings from companies involved in the energy sector — Emirates’ most important corporate customers — had fallen sharply with the collapse in crude prices.
Emirates announced earlier this month that it has ordered two additional A380 aircraft from Airbus, taking the total number of the Dubai airline’s superjumbo order book to 142. The aircraft will be delivered in the final quarter of 2017.
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