(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar Airways' chief executive officer yesterday called for the aviation industry's largest trade group to address protectionism, hitting back against US airlines campaigning to restrict what they claim is heavily subsidised competition from Gulf carriers.
US airlines are trying to persuade their government to alter the "Open Skies" agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, accusing them of lavishing their airlines with more than $40bn in subsidies and distorting competition.
Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways deny the subsidy claims.
"Any rollback of liberal market access and Open Skies policies will reverberate across the whole world and will lead to retaliatory protectionism affecting all aspects of trade," Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meeting in Miami.
Following al-Baker's comments, IATA director general Tony Tyler said the body was in favour of liberalisation. IATA has said it has no mandate to formally act on the issue.
"IATA and its members are fully in favour of growing liberalisation, free and fair competition, that's the policy of members and policy of IATA," Tyler said in response to questions from journalists.
Doug Parker, the CEO of American Airlines Group, acknowledged the carrier has code-share alliances with Qatar and Etihad, but said the US must enforce its trade policies.
"We've produced evidence to the US government that indeed other countries are subsidising carriers that are flying to the US," Parker said at a news conference after al-Baker's remarks.
Parker said the US government was working diligently on the issue and
was in regular communication with the airlines. He said the US government's timeline was not clear, but he hoped it would act soon.
While US carriers like American and Delta Air Lines Inc have closed ranks on the issue, others, like global cargo carrier FedEx Corp and Emirates codeshare partner JetBlue Airways Corp have stood up for the Open Skies agreements, voicing concern that changes would set a bad precedent.
But Germany's Lufthansa, whose business on routes to Asia have been hurt by competition from the Gulf carriers, echoed Delta and American's concerns on Sunday.
"There's various ways to how you can achieve balance of openness. It
could be limitations of destinations, limitations of frequencies," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said in a media briefing.
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