Airline Battles
“From Abu Dhabi to the world.” This is the tagline for one of the World’s best airlines, Etihad Airways. It operates to 116 destinations around the world from its home base, Abu Dhabi International Airport.
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The American three - Delta, United and American Airlines, didn’t have a problem with this slogan, until Etihad started flying from the US to Europe. The conflict between the U.S. three and the Middle Eastern three - Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, began when Emirates, one of the world’s best airlines stationed in Dubai, started its daily service from New York’s John F Kennedy Airport to the Milan International Airport in Italy.
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The U.S. did not have a major problem with the M.E. three, until this new route was announced. The problem, as the U.S. put it, is that “Emirates is not flying to its home base, so it shouldn’t be allowed to operate the JFK - Milan route”, as the U.S. three, especially Delta and American, have a monopoly on this route. Due to Emirates offering cheaper and better on and off board customer service, Delta and American lost quite a lot of business to the M.E. three. But in contrast to the Asian routes, transatlantic routes are a major bread winner for the U.S. companies.
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The second issue between the two is over government subsidies and grants. The U.S. has a major complaint that the M.E. gets huge subsidies from their respective UAE and Qatari governments, while the United States government does not help the U.S. three with any such subsidies and grants. The U.S. airlines claim that their competition have gotten as much as $42 billion in subsidies and other various unfair advantages over them.
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Jill Zuckerman absolutely agrees, and has become the official spokeswoman for the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies, the lobbying group representing American, Delta and United Airlines in this matter. But don’t think Delta, United and American are innocent say the Middle Eastern airlines. The M.E. three allege that the U.S. three have been taking advantage of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows any US company to shed debt and unwanted business in the form of strategic bankruptcy filings.
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Qatar has accused the U.S. three of taking advantage of this rule for the past 15 years. Another argument that the M.E. put up is that if the U.S. really wanted their customers back, they should have updated their age old fleet, and invested in newer aircrafts while focusing more on customer service. The M.E. 3 do practice all the above mentioned practices in their own operations. Emirates is the largest operator of the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, currently having about 45 in operation and about 20 in order. Qatar is the owner of the newest fleet and has been ranked the best airline for three consecutive years.
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Emirates has cleared itself of any accusations and has posted several statistics on its website. Until this conflict ends, one can only speculate but I personally, like to indulge in the M.E.’s incredible hospitality and lower prices!
