April 21- The President of Emirates Airline, Tim Clark, said on Tuesday that 20 per cent of the airline’s fleet is still grounded in Dubai as more flights were cancelled. “All the German flights that were going off this morning have had to be rerouted to Vienna and Zurich,” Clark said. Flights to Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf had to be flown to Vienna or Zurich.
However, Emirates will not increase its fares once normalcy resumes, added Clark. Emirates has already incurred losses worth $66 million.
Meanwhile flights to France, Switzerland and Italy will leave as scheduled but since the dust cloud is moving, flights to Italy may be grounded today. Emirates can deal with the losses for another two weeks, said Clark: “Two weeks will be manageable, we are in good shape.” He is also confident that his airline can deal with the loss. “We can recover this, so long as it doesn’t go on indefinitely. We will cut costs, increase income, work the airline harder, hopefully we can get through it,” he added.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on Monday that airlines around the world are losing about $200 million a day owing to the disruptions.
