First, the American legacy carriers (American, Delta and United) had a press conference on March 5, stating Emirates, Qatar and Etihad are violating the fair-play terms of their nations’ “Open Skies” agreements with the U.S. by receiving over $40 billion in government subsidies in the past 10 years. The legacy carriers want the U.S. to freeze the numbers of flights the Gulf carriers can operate into the U.S. They had forensic accountants help make their case against the Gulf carriers.
Now, French and German transport ministers released a public statement Friday, repeating their statements to other EU transport ministers in a meeting earlier in the day in Brussels. They want their EU partners and the EU Executive Commission to take action and want landing rights in Europe to be granted to airlines only in exchange for fair trade controls on the way the airlines operate .They also want EU legislation revised so that fair competition can be legally enforced in the aviation sector. Germany and France stated that Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden backed their call.
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