Newsmakers
U.S. White Paper distorts my gulf carrier report says academic
May 1st 2015
Cranfield University lecturer, Dr. John Frankie O’Connell, said the U.S. White Paper on alleged Gulf airline subsidies has made false claims from arguments put forward in his recent research paper. Read More »
The UK academic said his work was distorted several times in a 55-page White Paper, Restoring open skies: the need to address subsidized competition from state-owned airlines Qatar and UAE. His own paper, The rise of the Arabian Gulf carriers: an insight into the business model of Emirates Airline, was published in the Journal of Air Transport Management.
“I feel that my views were inaccurately interpreted and skewed to serve objectives unrelated to my paper,” Dr. O’Connell said. He said the White Paper substitutes Emirates as a beneficiary of Dubai airport’s fee structure when he wrote all airlines benefit from it.
He also said that duty fee subsidization of cheaper landing fees is not exclusive to Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi as intimated by the White Paper. It is a common practice worldwide for duty free facilities and other sources of non-aeronautical revenue such as car parking to subsidise landing fees and charges, he said.
The White Paper was also guilty of distorting the unit labour costs of Gulf carriers and its rivals. Dr O’Connell said. “The unit costs in Euros for the latest financial year for Emirates and Singapore Airlines are very similar. The unit labour cost parity indicates that the Guf incumbent is subjected to the same productivity challenges as its Asian counterpart.”
Over to you Richard. Richard Anderson is CEO of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and is a forthright opponent of increasing Gulf carriers’ access to the U.S. market.
