Here is an interesting article discussing the Big 3 Gulf carriers expansion. The author seems to think the European carriers are most vulnerable. What he might be overlooking is the sheer size of the growth will inevitably have an effect even on US carriers. European traffic headed into S. America could also now go through Dubai instead of the US. Many possibilities here. The sheer driving force will be low cost structure. With HUGE orders the aircraft are cheaper, the labor costs are much cheaper as third world employees load bags, perform maintenance and ticketing/sales along with cheaper pilot-flight attendant costs. Fuel is much cheaper in the Middle East. Many big benefits for the Gulf carriers here and the biggest being extremely pro-active governments who aggressively help and aid their airlines vs. the noise abatement, no night flying, airspace restrictive Western governments. The big unknown here will be can all 3 of the Big Gulf carriers survive?
http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...e-eastern-carriers-crush-the-us-airlines.aspx
The article does actually have good points, however the author is a young kid who only gets his premises correct half the time at best.
Why ALPA are so out for EK, EY, and QR versus BA, LH, and AF is actually the more important question. BA serve over 20 cities in the USA, LH serve 17. That versus EK's 7 ( soon to be 8 ).
This so called threat these guys are talking about has existed for years. It's the European carriers that carry U.S. traffic via Europe to points beyond. Or Asian carries that carry U.S. traffic via their hubs into Asia.
EK, EY, and QR are just newer competitors to the game and it would appear the fact that they are Middle Eastern and Muslim in nature ( read easy for most Americans to hate ) have given the heads of ALPA an easy target to get the ALPA membership to fixate on.
Those who buy into ALPA's rhetoric are the same people who bought into Hitler's, Mussolini's, etc. It's the old game of: "there is the enemy, everything that is bad about your life and career is their fault".
EK, EY, and QR are a threat. They are a competitive threat. Just like BA, LH, AF, CX, SQ, and a myriad of other airlines.
There are disparities in the playing field, but the protectionist arguments are not going to help. At best they could delay change. What ALPA members and the U.S. airlines need to do is written somewhat in ALPA's white paper. There are some good points in there about U.S. taxation of airlines, security charges, etc. However some of the stuff in there is pie in the sky thinking.
If I was an ALPA member I wouldn't fixate on the things that seem to be coming onto this board so much. I would be lobbying the government on those taxation policies, i.e. something that might be obtainable to help my carrier. I would be looking at ways to help my airline compete (and there are ways).
I'll give you one for free. Put an ad in the paper talking about safety on U.S. to Europe flights. EK crew their MXP-JFK with only 2 pilots for a flight blocked at 9:20. Make sure the travelling public know that U.S. carriers have 3 pilots for safety.
Typhoonpilot
