Miami: A bitter feud between some of United States and European largest carriers with their Gulf rivals is not just about subsidy allegations, the Chief Executive of Germany’s Lufthansa said on Monday.
Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa’s chief executive, said at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meet in Miami that regulations in Europe had allowed for Gulf airlines to buy significant stakes in European carriers but that airlines from Europe could not buy into state-owned Gulf airlines.
Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways are all state owned. Etihad owns stakes in a number of European carriers including Air Berlin and Italy’s Alitalia. Qatar Airways owns just under 10 per cent of the International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways and Iberia.
There needs to be freedom of investment, Spohr said.
The US’ biggest three airlines want their government to restrict the growth of their Gulf counterparts, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways because they say they are state subsidised. Lufthansa and Franco-Dutch Air France have complained for years about unfair competition from the Gulf airlines that deny that they are subsidised.
Allegations of state subsidies have long followed the Gulf’s largest airlines who have become some of the biggest and fastest expanding in the world. But earlier this year the arguments gained weight when the US carriers released a 55-page document outlining their allegations. The three airlines deny the claims against them.
The allegations have so far threatened to overshadow the IATA annual general meeting that ends on Tuesday. Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, told reporters he did not agree with the US carriers and warned that protectionism will be detrimental to the industry.
James Hogan, Etihad president and chief executive, said that he expected the industry would eventually move past the claims against his airline and the other gulf carriers and instead focus on working together again. Qatar Airways chief, Akbar Al Baker, asked for a reluctance IATA to take a position on the issue, meanwhile a day before the meet Spohr said the Gulf dispute “wasn’t a big issue.”