Still climbing

Middle East airlines defy recession

Mark Twain’s famous quote “rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” brings a smile to Emirates’ President Tim Clark, whose office overlooks an airport that does not seem to know the meaning of the word recession.

Just 12 months ago naysayers were predicting Emirates would be forced to merge with oil rich Abu Dubai’s Etihad and the Middle East bubble had finally burst. Problem for those doomsday merchants is they forgot to tell Clark and other Middle-East airline CEOs such as Etihad’s James Hogan. “We were more amused than anything,” Clark says as he reflects on the state of the industry post the world’s greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression and on the eve of the Dubai Air Show.