Dubai: A move by the Dutch government to block the Gulfs three largest airline from adding more flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is unlikely to have a major impact on the carriers.

“If restrictions are placed on further access it may be an irritation to the Gulf carriers but they have many other opportunities, which they can exploit,” said John Strickland, Director of London-based JLS Consulting, by email.

Dutch newspaper, Financieele Dagblad, reported earlier this week the government will not allow Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways to launch any new flights to Amsterdam.

Emirates flies twice daily from Dubai and Etihad flies once daily from Abu Dhabi in addition to a code-share flight with French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM. Qatar Airways will launch services from Doha in June.

“Air France-KLM, with its small home market, has developed an effective hub operation at its Amsterdam base. However, there are many new traffic flows, which an airline like Emirates brings to the Dutch market that cannot be tapped by KLM in its own network structure,” Strickland said.

Dutch State Secretary for the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Wilma Mansveld, reportedly said this week: “I want, together with my European colleagues, to take a tougher approach to the rise of airlines in the Middle East if there is talk of unfair competition.”

Spokespersons for Emirates and Etihad told Gulf News by email that they had not received any notification from the Dutch government. Qatar Airways did not respond to a request for comment.

The Emirates spokesperson also said that “under the UAE-Netherlands air services agreement, there are no restrictions on the number of frequencies and the size of aircraft used.”

The Dutch Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The reported move to restrict growth of the Gulf carriers comes amid lobbying efforts by the United States’ three largest airlines, who have asked their government to rethink open skies agreements with the UAE and Qatar over allegations that the Gulf carriers benefit from unfair state subsidies. Air France-KLM and Germany’s Lufthansa have also warned that their market share is at risk by the allegedly state subsidised carriers.