Originally Posted by
Enzokk
First off there seems to be a lot of figures floating around. Is it $5B or $6B that EK received? Was the fuel hedging a write off of $2.4B or $4B? Seems as no-one can get the figures straight.
Secondly, for me it seems clear that the US3 are concerned about fifth freedom flights from the ME3 that will compete with their JV flights. They seem to have discovered gold with the Joint Ventures that have been given antitrust immunity and have not given any thought to actually competing on these routes with their partners. If EK, EY and QR were to suddenly enter the fray the airline would actually have to try and compete on product and price and I think this scares them into desperate measures (hence the above accusations to limit fifth freedom flying).
Completely agree with you - I mean, look at the massive controversy (on the US side) over the Norwegian Air Shuttle TATL service that still doesn't have approval!
I mean, clearly Norwegian should be banned from flying to the US as it's got to be subsidised by all that oil there, how else could they be flying these obviously below cost flights to the US!!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...foxx/14810499/
http://aviationweek.com/commercial-a...c-debate-heats
Oh wait, the argument in the NAI case is that they have moved to that bastion of state aid, Ireland and are therefore trying to "skirt labor and safety laws". There you have it, Aer Lingus need to be banned from TATL travel!
