Emirates Airlines’ president Tim Clark has called for a global summit of international carriers to agree to a response to the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash.
Clark toldReutersthat he was “incandescent with rage” when he heard of the crash, which killed 298 people after being shot down over East Ukraine.
He said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and UN-body the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) could call an international summit to discuss whether changes need to be made with regards to flight paths over war zones.
"The international airline community needs to respond as an entity, saying this is absolutely not acceptable and outrageous, and that it won't tolerate being targeted in internecine regional conflicts that have nothing to do with airlines,” Clark said.
"If you go east to west or vice-versa between Europe and Asia, you are likely to run into areas of conflict," Clark said.
"We have traditionally been able to manage this. Tripoli and Kabul were attacked, Karachi was attacked and we have protocols and contingencies and procedures to deal with this," he said.
"That was up until three days ago. Now I think there will have to be new protocols and it will be up to ICAO and IATA and the aviation community to sort out what the protocols have to be."
Malaysia Airlines (July 21) today announced that any passenger booked on one of its flights from now until the end of the year will have the option to postpone or cancel it with a full refund. Passengers have until July 24 to make a claim.