COMMENTARYThis theme, of course,
sends some messages.
One of them is that Gulf
carriers and fast-grow-
ing challengers like
Turkish are an integral
part of the industry.
Another message is:
Why can’t all govern-
ments support airlines
as generously as those
in Qatar, Turkey or the
United Arab Emirates?
Why do ours have to
make life so difcult?
But that is about it
in terms of common
ground. The question of how to deal
with the threat from the Middle East
remains unanswered.
Germany is sending some very
awkward aeropolitical messages these
days that serve as an illustration. Only
a few weeks ago, German civil aviation
authority LBA told Etihad Airways
that it will no longer be allowed to
code-share on 34 of the 60 Air Berlin
flights that are operated with dual AB
and EY flight numbers. This has af-
fected the important Abu Dhabi-Berlin
route, the lifeline of the partnership,
and many routes beyond Berlin. LBA
T
here seems to be something of a strange trend in the airline
industry. Earlier this year, the members of the InternationalAir Transport Association (IATA) met in Doha/Qatar for their
annual meeting. And now, in October, the Association of Europe-
an Airlines (AEA) came together in Istanbul for its annual meet-
ing. Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines are of course among
those airlines that inflict the most pain on what used to be the
established legacy airlines. Meeting in your worst enemy’s home
town has become a theme this year.
Leveling the
Playing Field
Europe’s airlines often complain about state
support for competitors, but they are very good
at taking advantage of it themselves
told Etihad the code-shares were il-
legal because the bilateral air service
agreement between the UAE and
Germany did not include them. But the
authority had approved the services
six times in the past three years.
An added protocol to the bilateral
allows Etihad (and Emirates) to fly
to four points in Germany and serve
“three additional points limited to
code-share services only in the Federal
Republic of Germany.” All parties so
far have interpreted that sentence as
meaning that Etihad can put its code
on Air Berlin services to Abu Dhabifrom three more German destina-
tions. But LBA suddenly changed its
mind and argued the sentence means
code-sharing only to three points on
domestic routes within Germany.
Of course nobody will ever pub-
licly admit what really happened. But
multiple sources in the industry talk
about massive lobbying by Lufthansa
and Condor in an efort to halt Etihad’s
own expansion and its financial sup-
port for Air Berlin, in which it owns a
29.2% stake. Those that claim Gulf car-
riers benefit from massive government
support in multiple ways managed to
force not only a reinterpretation of the
bilateral but also immediate action by
authorities: The ban would have been
efective at the end of October. At the
last moment, LBA changed its mind
again and approved the code-sharing
for the coming winter, but still insists
that the flights are not covered by the
bilateral.
Needless to say that in past cases
where Lufthansa code-sharing services
were of doubtful legality, LBA and the
ministry simply started renegotiating
the bilaterals until the deals became
fully legal, and in the meantime it was
business as usual.
It is not quite true that European
governments never support their
airlines. In fact, in some cases they act
more protectionistically than one might
expect, even though AEA CEO Athar
Hussein Khan says he is “sick and
tired” of Europe being called protec-
tionist when he sees it as “the only fully
liberalized aviation market.” European
airlines are not shy when it comes to
taking advantage of state support. In
the Air Berlin case, help was political,
but the many recent airline state aid
approvals by the European Commission
show that often real money is involved.
State support in whatever form—like
it or not—is a fact of life in the airline
industry. In the Gulf region, in Europe
or elsewhere. It will not go away.
Lufthansa’s CEO Carsten Spohr be-
lieves introducing WTO-type rules in
air transport would help level the play-
ing field and bilaterals should remain
the primary tools to manage market
access. It seems that the German
government has listened very carefully.
And by the way, the next AEA annual
meeting takes place in Brussels. cAirline Intel
By Jens FlottauManaging Editor for Civil
Aviation Jens Flottau blogs at:
AviationWeek.com/thingswithwings
[email protected]AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 23
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