Emirates President Tim Clark says Boeing crisis is far from over

Emirates President Tim Clark says in a round of interviews that the crisis at Boeing is far from over and the U.S. planemaker needs to do more to address customer concerns.

For starters, he says Emirates should receive billions in compensation for delays in the development of Boeing’s latest 777 jet, Arab News reports.

Clark’s concerns carry clout given that his airline is the biggest buyer of both Boeing and Airbus widebody aircraft.

“For me, this will be a five-year hiatus starting from now,” Clark said in an interview with Bloomberg.

As a result of the manufacturing issues and delays on new widebody aircraft at the planemaker, Emirates is putting more of its Boeing 777 aircraft through an extensive retrofit program, Clark said.

That has raised the cost of the program to about $3.5 billion from previously $2 billion, he said.

Clark also advised that Boeing pick a strong CEO grounded in engineering and business to replace the departing Dave Calhoun.

The Emirates chief also said he’s certain that airfares are going up. “Unfortunately, but that’s the way it is,” he told CNBC.