The U.S. Airlines’ Hypocrisy on Protectionism in the Skies
Skift Take
"I’m all for American carriers succeeding. But they need to look past the short-term thinking and understand the world is about to get even more global, even more competitive and shaving dollars quarter to quarter isn’t going to save them."
Colin Nagy (@CJN) is executive director at The Barbarian Group.
I’m sitting in Abu Dhabi, fresh off of an Etihad flight from New York, and thinking about the modern day aero-political situation. As you do.
Why?
U.S. airlines were recently in the news, calling for limits on the expansion of Middle Eastern carriers in key American markets.
The core issue is the desire of many Middle Eastern carriers to start running nonstop flights from Europe to the US. Emirates has fired the first salvo with a Dubai-Milan-JFK route and others are not far behind.
According to the New York Times, the American carriers cite unfair competition based on “large government subsidies that put the domestic carriers at a disadvantage.” The Times highlighted the airlines’ issued statements saying similar things about welcoming competition if the playing field is level.
This is a bit rich.
The truth is, US carriers have all received government support in the past. Whether it is Chapter
