Emirates doesnt blink as subsidy row heats up

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Dubai: Emirates is not wavering as the latest round of state subsidy allegations gain weight in Europe.

The Dutch government last week joined calls by some of Europe’s and the United States’ largest airline’s to freeze additional landing rights to Gulf carriers until subsidy allegations are investigated.

Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and CEO of Emirates airline and Group, has responded by saying that the airline will continue to respect the current air service agreement.

“We’ll do whatever our bilateral says,” he told Gulf News at an event in Dubai late on Sunday.

Bilateral air service agreements are agreements between two countries that allow international commercial air transport services between the two nations. Emirates said last week there are no restrictions on frequencies or size of aircraft under the UAE-Netherlands air services agreement.

Emirates operates two daily flights to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital. The airport, one of the busiest in Europe, is a major hub for Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM.

Dutch State Secretary for the Ministry of Infrastructure, Wilma Mansveld, told Gulf News last week “the Netherland will not issue any additional traffic rights to carriers from the Gulf states” until Europe decides how to tackle the state subsidy issue.

Mansveld, who has called on Europe to take a “tougher approach” to Middle East airlines, is backing an initiative to give European Transport Commissioner Violet Bulc a mandate to negotiate with the Gulf states over fair competition.

Last December, chief executives of a number of European airlines, including Air France-KLM and Germany’s Lufthansa, both critic’s of the Gulf carriers, wrote to Bulc urging her to sort out the subsidies issue.

Emirates, along with other Gulf carriers, is also caught in a dispute over claims of subsidies by US airlines.

By Alexander ?Cornwell Staff Reporter