When will airline regulators or those trying to curtail freedom of choice for passengers ever get it that travellers are no fools? Passengers choose flights and airlines based on price, value for money, convenience, the quality of aircraft and the service offered. Simply put, the Gulf carriers have mastered the art of service.
And while the Gulf airlines are the winners, older, legacy carriers — that once flew their nations’ flags around the world — are losing out. These legacy carriers have historically, for long, benefitted from subsidies, grants and government support.
Those same nations who, in the interests of opening up routes, maintaining their market share and increasing revenues, pushed for open-skies agreements.
At present, the European Union’s (EU) executive arm, the European Commission (EC), is reviewing air travel regulations to include a fair competition clause, which would allow traffic rights to be withdrawn if airlines received unfair subsidies. Were such a clause to be imposed retroactively, national carriers across Europe would be grounded and it’s only in the past decade that airlines there have largely been privatised.
A founding principle of the EU is free movement of goods and services. The EC should remember that, instead of indulging in selective protectionism of carriers who are not up to travellers’ standards.
