Emirates president Sir Tim Clark will step down from his position after 35 years with one of the world’s largest airline in June 2020. Sir Clark joined the airline in 1985 as a member of the founding team and headed the airline planning division, before being appointed president in 2003.

Tim Clark with Stan Deal of Boeing at Dubai Airshow 2019

Many newspaper outlets are reporting that the replacement for Sir Clark will be in contention from inside the organisation, and Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer at Emirates, Adnan Kazim, chief commercial officer at Emirates and Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, are among the frontrunners to replace Tim Clark. Sir Clark will stay on as an advisor for Emirates to ensure a smooth transition.

Prior to Emirates, Tim Clark worked at Gulf Air, and before that at Caledonian Airways. When Emirates held a stake in SriLankan Airlines, he was also the Managing Director there through 2008. He is widely credited with creating the Hub and Spoke model for Emirates which has turned it into the global behemoth it is today. He also helped with Airbus making up their mind launching the A380 and made Emirates a key customer of the aircraft, making interesting passenger experience improvements such as a bar and a shower on the plane.

This would be a big step change for one of the constants at Emirates and could be a new leaf in the life of Emirates. What do you think will be the next chapter of the Emirates story?