The Jan. 23 announcement by Emirates that it will begin
direct flights between Newark Airport and Athens in March has heightened tensions
between the U.S. legacy carriers and their Gulf competitors in the opening days
of the Donald Trump administration.
The daily flight, which will continue on from Athens to
Emirates' Dubai hub, is only the second scheduled flight the international carrier
will offer between the U.S. and a location other than Dubai. The other,
Emirates' daily flight from New York JFK to Malpensa Airport in Milan, has
rankled American and Delta, both of which also fly from JFK to Milan.
Emirates' service to Athens will be the only year-round
route between a New York-area airport and the Greek capital. United began
flying Newark-Athens seasonally last summer, and Delta flies to Athens during
the summer from JFK.
"We are pleased to be able to help meet a strong
consumer need long neglected by other airlines, and we would like to thank the
authorities and our partners in both the U.S. and Greece for their support of
the new route," Emirates president Tim Clark said a statement last week.
But while Clark described the route as an aid to business
and cultural ties between Greece and the U.S. as well as a boon to tourism, the
Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, an organization comprising seven U.S.
airline industry unions plus legacy carriers Delta, United and American, seized
upon it as an example of why president Trump should support their long-standing
call for a freeze on U.S. route expansion for Emirates and its fellow Gulf
carriers Etihad and Qatar.
The legacy carriers accuse the Gulf-based competitors of
accepting $50 billion in government subsidies since 2004 in violation of
international open skies aviation agreements. The Gulf carriers deny the
accusations.
"By flagrantly violating its Open Skies agreement with
the United States at the start of the Trump administration, Emirates is
throwing down the gauntlet," Partnership for Fair & Open Skies
spokesperson Jill Zuckman said the day Emirates announced the Newark-Athens
flight. "We look forward to working with president Trump and his team to
enforce these agreements and protect American jobs, something that the Obama
administration failed to do."
Emirates disputed the assertion that flying to Athens from
Newark violates the United Arab Emirates-U.S. aviation agreement, and said in a
statement that the authority to fly between two foreign countries is a "bedrock
element" of the 120 such agreements that the U.S. has signed.
Indeed, the carrier isn't unique in being an international
airline that flies nonstop from the U.S. to destinations outside its home
country. For example, Singapore Airlines flies six U.S. routes, with five
stopping in a second country before heading on to Singapore. Other examples
include Air New Zealand, which flies from Los Angeles to London and tiny Air
Tahiti Nui, which flies from Los Angeles to Paris.
Meanwhile, Delta and United both fly routes that don't
involve their home country. Delta flies from Tokyo's Narita airport to six
other Asian countries and United flies from Narita to Seoul, South Korea.
Airline industry analyst Bob Mann of R.W. Mann & Co.
said that the major U.S. carriers are using Emirates' Newark-Athens route as a
test case for how Trump, who ran for president on a protectionist trade
platform, will handle aviation agreements.
"I think it is being propped up as another piece of a
trial balloon, which is: Does he want to ratchet back on open skies?" Mann
said.
The concerns of the legacy carriers, Mann said, are less
about the legitimacy of the Athens route than about losing competitive market
share to Emirates and the other growing Gulf carriers.
"The typical argument that the Big Three seem to have
is, 'We're perfectly willing to serve all this traffic via our global alliance,
antitrust-immune joint ventures, but don't be caught trying to steal our
traffic with direct flights,'" Mann said dismissively.
Mann is joined in his skepticism by U.S. Airlines for Open
Skies, an organization consisting of JetBlue, Hawaiian and cargo carriers Atlas
Air Worldwide and FedEx.
On Dec. 7, well before last week's Emirates announcement,
the group wrote a letter to vice president Mike Pence, asking that the
administration uphold open skies agreements with the United Arab Emirates and
Qatar, despite the entreaties of the legacy airlines.
Freezing Gulf carrier expansion in the U.S., the group said,
"would reduce competition not only on international routes but also in the
domestic market by stemming the flow of passengers into the United States that
has enabled smaller U.S. airlines to expand service and compete with the legacy
carriers."
The Athens flight will be the first for Emirates into
Newark, which will become its 12th U.S. destination.
In addition, Emirates flies four times daily to JFK, once on
the controversial Milan route and three times nonstop from Dubai.
Emirates did not respond to a query last week about whether
the start of the Trump presidency factored into its timing of the Newark-Athens
announcement. The carrier unveiled the flight just seven weeks ahead of its
launch, a shorter-than-typical lead time.