The “flights freeze” taken
by Dutch lawmakers, which stops any further new services into Netherlands
by Gulf carriers, is added to moves already taken by Germany and France
to freeze the allocation of new routes to Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar.
President Captain Lee Moak of the U.S. organization
“Americans for Fair Skies” (AFF), said:
“Like the French and the Germans, the Dutch have
also seen the evidence.”
AFS has asked the U.S. Government “to likewise
freeze new route applications from Gulf carriers into the U.S. until issues
(including questions of unfair subsidies) have been sorted out,”
Lee Moak said.
“To be clear: we support Open Skies 100 percent.
Any suggestion to the contrary is an attempt to distract from the true
narrative. Our call for government action is directed only to two cases
where foreign governments are engaged in predatory practices to distort
the marketplace in favor of their state-owned airlines, which runs counter
to Open Skies.
“These are not allegations.
“These are facts.
“And the subsidies by the United Arab Emirates
and Qatar to their state-subsidized airlines are the worst form of protectionism,”
Lee Moak said. |
