Exclusive-Emirates to offer incentives, safety assurances as Iran war hits travel

By Joanna Plucinska

BERLIN, June 9 (Reuters) - Emirates will roll out incentives aimed at winning back travellers worried about the protracted Iran war, focusing on reliability and customer support rather than lower fares, the Gulf airline's President Tim Clark told Reuters on Tuesday.

The state-backed airline will stick to its strategy of maintaining flight schedules despite rising costs, Clark said in his first interview with a global news agency since the conflict began in late February, hitting Middle Eastern airlines.

Instead, it will offer "all sorts of incentives other than price" to encourage passengers to return, he said, even as talks to end the conflict drag on and attacks around the Gulf have flared in recent days.

INTELLIGENCE-SHARING

"That could be new means of ensuring their safety of operation, for instance," Clark said on the sidelines of an industry summit in Berlin, adding the airline would also address concerns about cancelled flights and people getting stranded.

"We'll take care of all of that, including flying them on other carriers if necessary to bring them home or get the kids into school," he said, adding that flight safety remained the airline's top priority.

Clark also said Emirates was in talks with governments and regulators to ease restrictions on Middle East airspace, which has been constrained by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued conflict-zone warnings advising airlines against flying over parts of the Gulf and Middle East.

"We are talking to them," Clark said, referring to governments in the region, while acknowledging regulators' duty to protect passengers. "We rely on governments to be a little less restrictive in the warnings they issue about travelling across the Middle East."

He added Emirates was in close contact with regional governments and said intelligence-sharing with airlines was extensive to ensure safe operations.

Clark said the airline could not drop ticket prices for now to attract travellers back to its key hub in Dubai. "The ticket price is very much conditional on what the oil price starts, and at the moment the oil price fluctuates," he said. 

He added Emirates still hoped for a good summer season, despite the conflict leaving first-class cabins about half full, and predicted oil prices would eventually fall from about $90 a barrel to around $70.

"And then we'll be back," he said. "But it's a question of how long it takes."

(Reporting by Joanna Pluciska. Writing by Thomas Seythal. Editing by Adam Jourdan and Mark Potter)