Airline alliances ‘the old way’ of doing things, Emirates president says

'What you see is the beginning of the fracturing of the world order of aviation that has been dominating from the 80s and until 2008.'

Emirates president Tim Clark said that airline customers now prioritise 'a good value proposition' above collecting miles. Satish Kumar / The National

The Emirates president Tim Clark yesterday hit out at the airline alliance model, saying that it is "the old way" of doing things and that passengers today care more about good value than collecting miles.

"What you see is the beginning of the fracturing of the world order of aviation that has been dominating from the '80s, '90s, and until 2008. There is sea change going on at the moment," Mr Clark said at the Arabian Travel Market event in Dubai.

Mr Clark added that customers now prioritise “a good value proposition” above collecting miles.

“The alliances must be asking themselves how they are going to ally the business in the 21st century with what the demand is,” said Mr Clark.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of the airline, said it could not have achieved its current scale by joining one of the big global airlines alliances – such as oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance.

“From the start we said we would be on our own. At the time we asked if we did not go with the alliances would it be a negative thing for Emirates in the future? A number of airlines joined alliances because they see the big ones there so it must be good. It doesn’t follow that if someone is big he knows more,” Sheikh Ahmed said at the ATM.

“If we went with the alliances I don’t think you would see Emirates at the size it is today.”

Emirates is not the first to criticise the alliance model. Last September, James Hogan, the chief executive of Etihad Airways, said the model of international carrier alliances is "fractured".

Mr Hogan said Etihad had grown via preferred partnerships, strong code-share relationships and equity investments.

Yesterday, Mr Clark also said that Turkish Airlines will be “a serious challenge” to European hubs once the new airport in Istanbul is completed.

“Turkish Airlines, which we are very pleased to say that they have taken our model and said we can do this, is about to finish the largest European hub. When it is finished, it will be a serious challenge to the alliances’ hubs,” said Mr Clark.

Turkey is preparing to open Istanbul's new airport in 2017. With US$35 billion of investments, the airport will have six runways, 500 aircraft parking spots and the capacity to accommodate 150 million passengers.

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