US Airline CEOs Disappointed By White House Meeting

@Angelo

I live in Dubai since 16 years and I can assure you that the two UAE carriers work with open books. Their accounts are audited by third parties according to international standards. But there's more into this. Dubai doesn't live thanks to Oil since year 2000 (approx) and due to the size of its airline, can't possibly subsidize it. On the contrary, EK is distributing profit to Dubai. So for a fact Emirates isn't subsidized. Etihad, due to the past years losses (each time I read the numbers I start shivering) if it was subsidized then it would be either profitable or at least not in such a huge loss. Moreover it has dramatically reduced the routes, hence it can't be possibly seen as a threat in my view. For instance I fly to Dallas and Etihad has stopped that route since more than one year back.
Now there's only one left. Qatar Airways. We are now on year three of the blockage. I cannot fly via Doha from the UAE since 2017. Neither anybody can from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The airline is not making profit and in fact it has been hit bad by the current situation.

US airlines have been in profit for the last few years and in fact they've been in excellent health. Funny enough the most profitable has been Delta which is the one that has complained the most.

Do you want to laugh further? I live in Dubai and I fly via London because direct flights are simply unaffordable for me for the long routes. So 90% of my business goes to BA and AA and I am very very pleased with the value for money. So I hope this answers the doubt of the competitive advantages the ME3 are thought to have on the US3.

I use to fly AA exclusively to CHINA on business class, now I fly exclusively QATAR on business class. The food is much better on Qatar, The service is much much better, and the prices are sometimes 40% below those of AA. The transit time is 7-8 hours longer through DOHA, but they offer a much superior product. I have flown over 800miles on AA, but unless they mess up this QATAR route for me, I have no reason to put up with bad service, and bad food. Qatar has dine on demand, restaurant quality meals, courteous service, at much lower pricing. If you have never flown QATAR, do not speak without seeing the difference. The whole point of earning miles and upgrades on AA is ridiculous because availability even for my EXP status is poor. So why be loyal to a company who doesn't reward loyalty? My suggestion is that AA fly their employees on QATAR and learn a few things about why the competition is winning.

@Michael Jackson Harrison

They aren't going to file grievances against the Chinese carriers because the US3 are (subjectively) better than just about every mainland Chinese carrier.

Maybe if they start to improve their product, they won't have to worry as much about the ME3 cutting into their business. I think most US consumers would prefer to fly on American airlines (not AA), but Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar are just so much better.

Also, if the US3 really wants to point to a certain factor hindering their competition against the ME3, they should start pointing to unions and all of the restrictive labor and business regulations that the ME3 aren't subjected to in their own countries. Start petitioning the US government to help you compete instead of whining to them about how the ME3 are kicking your a**

All three of the US legacy carriers have declared bankruptcy. That’s a subsidy. when Delta did it all there long time staff lost there pensions because all these carriers care about is their bottom line.

The “argument” legacy carriers have with ME carriers is baseless and on the face of it looks agoraphobic, it’s exactly what the orange guy is doing: race baiting to scare people. “Oh those brown foreign people are ruining in our business”. It’s Offensive. And as many other commenters point out it seems to works against them. Anyone here stopped flying ME Arline’s?

Oh and Obama didn’t have this meeting because this meeting was pointless.

Possibility 1: Bastian truly couldn’t make it to a meeting with the most powerful man on Earth. If so, he and his entire staff are incompetent

Possibility 2: Bastian snubbed the President. If so, he and the Board are idiots.

Especially given the temperament of our President who sees all transactions as personal

I recently had several mission critical meetings packed back to back. Then a last minute request came in from a high level regulator who can make or break my entire field. I huddled with my team, delegated every mission critical meeting to them, and had my Assistant wipe my schedule so I could meet with the VIP.

I then huddled with each of my team and reached out to all canceled appointments to control the fallout.

That’s the job.
Bastian is Lucky his team is hitting on all other cylinders

Whether life is fair or not is not as important as the fact that DAL has a responsibility to its shareholders to protect its business from unfair foreign competition. The US has watched one industry after another be decimated by foreign competitors, only for Americans to wake up and realize they can't compete any longer.

DAL has been the most vocal of the big 3 US airlines in their charges against the Middle East 3 airlines but DAL's point in taking the campaign public is because consumers always vote with the pocketbooks over their principles unless they know the difference. When consumers know the facts, people do change their buying habits which is why charges of substandard working conditions in other countries against big US companies that import products do force change. DAL is simply helping consumers understand that American jobs are at stake and that US airlines are not competing against airlines but against countries that are trying to build their economies.

The difficulty of the discussion is because the Middle East airlines have bought and are committed to buying hundreds of Boeing aircraft, which they think gives them the right to destroy US airline jobs. They did the same thing in Europe with Airbus, esp. the A380 which exists only because the ME3 airlines bought it and even with them has still not solid in large enough numbers to ever be profitable. It is never good trade policy for one US industry to win at the expense of another. If the ME3 airlines are viable long-term, they will buy Boeing aircraft.

Congress is hearing the arguments of the big 3 US airlines and the chances are that they will act in some form. At the same time, political and economic battles between Qatar and the UAE are hurting their own businesses; they also are facing European and Asian airlines that are learning how to better compete.

DAL stock is not being held back by the ME3 because airlines have mobile factories. DAL can and has moved airplanes out of subsidized markets. Halting the growth of the ME3 airlines will provide growth markets not just for DAL but also for AAL and UAL. The ME3 also have the legal right to start routes from many countries in Europe to the US on flights that originate in the Middle East. The risk is if more of these routes are added. Many countries including Canada and a number of countries in E. Asia recognize the damage the Middle East airlines have done to their airline industry and allow limited access to the ME3 airlines, if any at all.

The US3 battle with the ME3 airlines is about protecting US airline jobs and ensuring that the open market system which governs air service between the US and most countries is truly based on free markets and not distorted by subsidies which nearly every other country has dictated are not permissible in international aviation.

In total honesty the claims the US airlines outline are ridiculous and there’s some lack of knowledge here. Number one, Etihad and Emirates are government owned but their respective emirates which are state cities. While Etihad is tired of losing 1 to 2 billion USD a year and has ever since cut at least a third of their routes (so I can’t really see how this would be seen as a threaten), Emirates belongs to Dubai whom since 2009 is actually pouring money to the government and not the other way around. Dubai is not Abu Dhabi and doesn’t have any money to subsidize. Moreover its account are monitored and audited as per standard international practice. The only airline that could subsidize their operation is Qatar Airways and I’m in no position to say whether this happens or not. But hey, something here is also not fully disclosed or lets say refreshed to the audience. Qatar right now is isolated by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein and Egypt. In other words, I live in Dubai and I can’t take Qatar to fly to the US. So I can’t see that as too much of a threaten either.

Now let’s come to the most juicy part. Since a few months I am only considering flying to Dallas via London with a codeshare BA+AA. They offer Premium Economy and it’s a good compromise between Business (which costs for an A/R trip same as someone’s yearly wage) or economy which is not a healthy option for a 16 hours non stop flight. Parallel to this, BA is not complaining and making worthy record profits. In other words, all of this animosity is baseless. People like me who live in the UAE actually mostly often opt for different alternatives, de facto, diverting business from the Gulf rivals. If AA was really thinking this through it would have a huge opportunity in the ME market. And I really mean huge. AA intercontinental flights are punctual, with great service and awesome 777’s. I’d not think it twice with the right prices.