Emirates gearing up after Germany, Switzerland, Austria opened their doors for tourism

Emirates doesn’t see travel recovery till the end of 2021

Reuter: International travel is likely to stay subdued till the end of the yr as nations reintroduce tough restrictions to control COVID-19 infections, the head of Dubai-based airline Emirates mentioned on Wednesday, February 10.

The comments from Tim Clark represent a more pessimistic view after he informed Reuters last month he didn’t believe the recovery can be further impeded by a new wave of infections and restrictions.

“It is going to take longer than I would have hoped and I feel probably we are going to see some difficulties. We are not going to see capability return that I hoped in July and August, I feel, maybe it will return within the last quarter this yr,” Clark informed a virtual summit by aviation consultancy CAPA.

Britain this week announced passengers arriving from sure nations must enter mandatory hotel quarantine for 10 days, a similar system to Australia.

Clark, who has delayed his retirement to tackle the coronavirus crisis, mentioned nations like Britain had taken “pretty draconian positions” with regards to worldwide travel.

The British government has mentioned the stronger measures are needed to prevent new variants of the virus from thwarting its speedy vaccination program.

Britain in January reimposed quarantine restrictions on travelers from the United Arab Emirates as cases within the Gulf state rapidly increased.

Clark mentioned he expected governments would continue to close borders and place restrictions on international travel till they get a better understanding of deal with the new variants.

The 71-year-old, a respected industry veteran, has throughout the crisis tended to be more bullish about rebounds than a lot of his peers.

Unlike another airlines, Emirates lacks a domestic market to cushion it against the downturn in international travel.Â