By now we're probably all familiar with the battle going on between the "big three" US carriers and "big three" Gulf carriers over Open Skies. While the battle so far has primarily been between the US and Middle East, this is something which the European carriers are involved with as well. For example, while British…
Continue reading: Qatar CEO Threatens Dutch Government Over Landing Slots
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There is a difference between being intertwined and illegal subsidies. I don't see his intervention being any different to countries demanding large offset requirements when placing orders for military and (becoming more common) commercial aircraft.
Interesting he brings up world cup influence given today's news about that....
KLM is a dreadful airline and can't compete with Qatar. Let the passengers decide. Reminds me of Air Canada. Countries that have smaller populations love to monopolize airlines and passengers get stuck with overpriced union driven airlines that devalue their service and programs. Let the games begin!
KLM is part of the Dutch identity. This has a lot to do with the failure of the Alitalia partnership and the Alliance with Richard Anderson. Qatar just opened a new flight to Schiphol as well. These middle eastern carriers have bankrupted Europe-Asia traffic by stealing seats. Many European airlines have close partners in Asia like Lufthansa-Air China, AF/KLM-China Southern and BA/Cathay Pacific. No wonder MAS, Thai and Garuda are in bad shape on their EU bound routes.
I see Nosferatu is at again. For the life of me Ben, I don't see why you find this guy so entertaining.
Akbar Al-Baker is just stating the obvious. Qatar’s government has put in equity to the airline and if their airline is given unfavorable treatment, due to US3 propaganda, then naturally you’d expect there to be some ramifications. Even though he might not have direct control over that decision, it’s just how the world works.
Don't forget Canada halted any further expansion into Canada by Gulf Carriers 2 years ago and the UAE government kicked Canada out of a military base out of retaliation.
As IV said, the Canadian situation is even worse. When Canada didn't provide wide open access to the UAE airlines they threw a temper tantrum. Kicked Canada out of their bases where they supported the gulf efforts and brought in Visas for Canadians (since eliminated). Well there are benefits to competition, these guys don't play fair and are bullies in so many ways.