This week, Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, has held a press conference to response to allegations of subsidy and unfair competition leveled by the “big three” US legacy carriers – Delta, United and American Airlines.
The video below features Clark’s media conference in Washington DC, following meetings where an Emirates delegation briefed officials from the US Departments of State, Transportation, and Commerce on the airline’s response.
According to Emirates, the US legacy carriers launched an aggressive lobbying campaign in January 2015, in a protectionist bid to restrict the growth of international flights to the USA operated by Emirates and other Gulf airlines. Only on 5 March did the US legacy carriers publicly release their 55-page white paper which presented so-called “evidence” of Emirates receiving subsidy and competing unfairly. Full appendices to the 55-pager were not made public until 21 April.
Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “The methods employed by the US legacy carriers to discredit Emirates have been surprising and frankly, repugnant. We do not underestimate their lobbying prowess, but facts are facts. Unlike the Big 3’s white paper, which is riddled with inaccuracies, conjecture, and legal misinterpretations, Emirates’ response is comprehensive and based on hard facts. We clearly show why the Big 3 have no grounds to ask the US government to unilaterally freeze Emirates’ operations to the USA or pursue other action under the Open Skies agreement. It is because we are absolutely not subsidized, and our operations do not harm these legacy carriers, but instead benefit consumers, communities and America’s national economy.”
Emirates’ full rebuttal document can be downloaded at: http://www.emirates.com/us/english/about/open-skies-rebuttal.aspx
We highly recommend to watch this video as it explains Emirates’ response in details.
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