The strategy has prompted a strong reaction from airlines like Air France and Lufthansa of Germany. These carriers hope to persuade their governments to limit Emirates’ access to French and German airports.
“Emirates’ strategy is aggressive,” says Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the chief executive of Air France, who complains that Emirates is siphoning off passengers from Europe’s traditional hubs. “Europe is at the center of the global aviation world. It’s the result of aviation history.”
Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the C.E.O. of Lufthansa, notes that it took 40 years for Lufthansa to build up its fleet of 30 Boeing 747s in Germany, one of the world’s largest economies. Emirates already flies 15 A380s, the world’s largest passenger airliners, and has ordered 75 more for delivery by 2018. (Air France, Lufthansa and British Airways have ordered a total of 39 A380s and, among them, have only eight flying.)