Global Airlines: Is It a Fair Playing Field

The US-UAE Open Skies Agreement was set into place to ensure fair competition between airlines with minimal involvement with the government. This agreement allows airlines to offer travel, shipping routing, and capacity at the lowest possible prices. And allow air carriers to travel across and land in their respective countries. To air carriers that are a part of this agreement are Emirates and Qatar airways. These two air carriers have received large subsidies from Persian Gulf countries. Many in the aviation community consider this an unfair advantage these companies have over their US counterparts but Over the year quite a few of the airlines have accepted subsidies for example the contract air mail act of 1925 subsidized what would become the modern air carriers we see today. Then more recently the US government bailed out American airlines shortly after 9/11. One thing I think everyone in aviation can agree on is that aviation is expensive. Even the large carriers we see today needed help occasionally otherwise they would not have been able to stay in business. I don’t believe that there is nothing wrong with that. But as a worldwide community we need to determine at what point dose that occasional help become unfair.

 We should discuss the export import bank. This bank gives loans to companies like Emirates at very low interest costs so the at they can use that money to fund their own investments. This funding allows them to purchase aircraft at mush lower rates than their competitors. And the reason that this is such an issue is the fact that domestic air carriers are not able to compete with these carriers that are purchasing substantial amounts of aircraft rapidly and suddenly flying more routs between the US and other countries. This enables them to drop their prices and out perform US companies unfairly. This has become more prevalent with Norwegian International Airlines. They operate 450 routes with 150 destinations.

References

Correll, D. S., & Krupa, C. (2017, December 02). US airlines at odds over aviation agreements with Qatar and UAE. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/us-airlines-at-odds-over-aviation-agreements-with-qatar-and-uae

McGee, B. (2015, September 02). How much do taxpayers support airlines? Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/mcgee/2015/09/02/how-much-do-taxpayers-support-airlines/71568226/

Mutzabaugh, B. (2017, February 23). Norwegian Air's $65 fares to Europe: What's the catch? Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/02/23/norwegians-65-fares-europe-whats-catch/98292866/