TRAVELCONSUMERDAILY.COM
THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2010

EUROPEAN airlines say they expect the Continent’s governments to becoming increasingly unwilling to allow Middle Eastern carriers unlimited rights to pillage the region’s air traffic when little of it is bound for the Middle East.

ATWOnline.com reports IATA recently noted that Middle East airlines "continue to post strong growth with connecting traffic through their hubs".

It is that so-called sixth freedom traffic in particular that concerns European carriers worried that growing numbers of passengers will choose EK connections through Dubai over flights offered by EU-based airlines.

KLM CEO Peter Hartman said he expects EK will face "more and more reluctance [from governments] to grant traffic rights".

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation points to recent reports that the French government has rejected requests to grant airlines from the United Arab Emirates more landing slots at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

Emirates, Etihad and Air Arabia were seeking a total of seven new slots, but French authorities reportedly agreed to just one new service.

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh said recently that Emirates' expansion represents a threat to long-haul European carriers. "It’s definitely going to have an impact on the business," he said.

Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told Bloomberg: "It’s a miracle that Emirates already has more intercontinental seats than Air France and British Airways combined.

"It took us 40 years to get 30 747s in the air in one of the biggest global economies, so one must assume that [EK's aggressive growth strategy] is an investment for [serving] the world."

EK last month ordered 32 additional A380 superjumbos, nominally valued at $US11.5 billion, the single biggest order for the aircraft to date, bringing its total orders for the type to 90.

CAPA commented that the eventual size of Emirates would be "significant enough to make irreversible the airline industry's transformation from a heavily regulated, nationalistic anachronism to something approaching a real business".

"No longer can traditional competitors hope to stave off this threat to the status quo, as they have been hoping in recent years while [Emirates] expanded threateningly. This order marks a genuine turning point in that process of change. It is so large in fact that competitors' business plans will be reshaped by it."