Emirates issues 350-page retort to U.S. carriers in aid spat

Gulf airline Emirates issued a 350-page report rejecting allegations that it received $6 billion in state subsidies, saying U.S. rivals skewed the facts in making the claims and have themselves received huge government handouts.

The Dubai carrier, ranked No. 1 worldwide by international traffic, produced a point-by-point rebuttal of the assertions from Fort Worth-based American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines and United Continental Holdings. It says the U.S. airlines favor so-called Open Skies treaties only when written clearly to their advantage.

“Their mess of legal distortions and factual errors falls apart at the slightest scrutiny,” Emirates President Tim Clark said in a statement in Washington Tuesday. “The big three are far from being harmed financially by Emirates’ operations, and they are not even operating in the same markets that we are.”

The U.S. carriers said in January that Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi have received a collective $42 billion in aid over the past decade. They followed up with a 55-page white paper detailing the claims and have begun a lobbying campaign aimed a persuading the government to deny further U.S. access to the Gulf airlines, which all provide service at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Clark said U.S. carriers have themselves benefited from wholesale government support worth $100 billion since 2002, ranging from the wiping out of pension debts in bankruptcies to assistance provided after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“They come to this debate, I’m afraid to say, with unclean hands,” he said, adding that charges against state-owned Emirates are “outright distortions” and “patently false.”

The Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, an umbrella group formed to speak for U.S. carriers on the issue, said in a statement that Emirates was seeking to “paper over” the allegations made against it and that Gulf carriers have received “massive subsidies” allowing them to expand “far beyond what market forces could ever support.”

Emirates representatives met with officials from the U.S. Departments of State, Transportation and Commerce on Monday to respond to the aid assertions, which span fuel-hedging and user fees at Dubai International Airport to the cost advantages of the United Arab Emirates’s labor laws.

The Obama administration has said that it is currently reviewing air-service agreements with both the U.A.E. and Qatar. Clark said that officials assured him that they’ll examine the facts and “not be influenced by theater,” with the claims likely to be scrutinized in July or August.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Emirates issues 350-page retort to U.S. carriers in aid spat."