Emirates President Tears Apart US Airlines In Op-Ed

Readers can and will make up their own minds but if you perform even a cursory investigation on the postings, VLOGS and commentaries by Ben Schlappig (aka Lucky) you will find MANY readers accusing him of being bought out by the travel industry, foreign airlines, credit card companies etc. As to the validity of the U.S. airlines fight with the middle Eastern big 3 airlines this again seems to be the case.

The beef the U.S. airlines have with the middle eastern carriers is a simple one. The middle eastern airlines signed an open skies agreement with the US government. An important part of the agreement was that they would not receive government funding. In return the US government opened up its markets to them. They've not honored the agreement and it should be revoked and Emirates, Etihad and Qatar banned from flying to the US.

The U.S. airlines have produced the proof, there are Youtube videos of the the CEO's of the ME3 admitting during interviews that they use their airlines as a government jobs program. Do a little research. Jobs programs aren't bad in and of themselves...it's just the ME3 signed and Open Skies agreement which they have violated before the ink was dry.

What is really troubling is that the governments supporting the middle eastern airlines are DYNASTIC MONARCHIES, AUTOCRACIES and have no consideration of human rights or the rule of law. They have every intention of using their artificial advantages to fly to every corner of the world, though they have NO INTENTION of growing beyond a feudalism (circa the 700's) and actually open their closed societies. If you support Emirates, Etihad or Qatar...you are anti-American worker and either a pro-monarchist (brutal dictator), communist or socialist (pro-government owned companies).

@Scabs

As of today there is no proof of any subsidies. Where are the proofs? I can’t accuse you of anything without proof. Moreover I don’t know where you live. I live in Dubai and know little more facts. Emirates is not owned by the UAE but by Dubai government which has no intention to subsidize such a large operation because since a couple of decades has no more oil money income. Besides accounts are audited as per international practices. EK is simply a very well managed airline. As simple as that. And I know it’s hard to accept but it’s a fact. Most of my friends are ready to pay little extra to fly with Emirates. It’s one of the top three safest carriers. Has a young fleet compared to most. Has a route coverage which makes it the largest carrier for international operations. It’s located half way between East and West which gives a geographical advantage.

By the way I’m mostly flying BA and AA as for me Emirates is too expensive for direct flights.

Tim Clark is right of course, the 3 buddies are whining like a baby that just loaded up its own diaper.
But the real question here is why are US people still flying those 3 airlines with their pathetic service. For domestic flights you may not always have a choice but for international fights any option is better. I just don't get why you guys keep flying them.
I have used all 3 and while United and Delta are just about acceptable when no alternative is available, AA I will not ever use again.

Id Guess the reason the big 3 do not go after Alitalia or Kenya is because they are losing money and/or do not pose a threat Whereas clearly the Mid East transfer to Southeast Asia/Australia has competitive advantages and flying to Milan is filled with people like me who like Emirates over AA and Alitalia. I hardly see anyone headed to Dubai on that flight. Bottom line is every airline in every country has gotten government assist historically and even today. But why fight Vietnam Airlines when they are not flying a better product to London?

I think your article is a bit off base here. It's not just the "big three" that are lobbying against Emirates for the record. If you're to take a look at the global market as a whole airlines have had to shift their international markets and focus cities based on the business model of Emirates. They throw 10 777's or A380's on a new route, make it so that the other airlines can't compete with pricing or any departure time, push that airline out of the market then once they have pushed competition out of that market increase price and decrease volume. Essentially developing what in some countries is known as a monopoly on a route, don't know if everyone here is familiar with that idea. I am not quite sure you all know much about the industry or even work in it based on your comments. The idea is that this is sustainable for them because they have subsidies by the government which show net revenue and profits that are untrue because they are bleeding money, yet they have subsidies from the government that allow them to compete on an unlevel playing field. However this conversation is not worth the time. It's not a surprise that Emirates is not only bleeding cash but pilots also. They are losing so many pilots that the ME3 is loaning pilots to each other's companies to cover routes. So you might want to interpret it this way, maybe the big three should stop their campaign simply because pilots who have worked for the ME3 and then switched back to the big three are noticing that work conditions at these companies are terrible in comparison. If you are an ex-pat they are literally holding you hostage right now and not letting you leave the country and saying you owe them hundreds of thousands of dollars, almost forced slavery, until you are allowed to leave the country and return to the US for a big three airline. Time will tell when enough pilots leave these places, they crumble because like many others working 120 hour lines and having 9 days off or less a month is a terrible schedule that only scabs would work for. My opinion and a throwaway name and account.