UAE aviation authorities plan to ask their German counterparts to allow the emirate’s airlines to fly to more destinations there.
This follows a German request last month that the two countries review their air services agreement.
Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of the General Civil Aviation Authority in the UAE, said the desire is twofold: to add destinations in Germany for UAE-originated flights, and to add destinations in third countries via Germany for UAE-originated flights.
The latter are what is known as “fifth freedom” flights, in which an airline is allowed to fly to two foreign countries on a route that originates on its home soil. An example would be Dubai-Frankfurt-Copenhagen.
Regarding new destinations, Mr Al Suwaidi said Berlin is the “most important” city to add to UAE carriers’ itineraries.
Currently, UAE carriers fly to German cities including Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
In October, airberlin said that German authorities refused to give permission for 34 codeshare flights with Etihad this winter, which the two airlines have challenged.
“I think commercial competition is behind this request from the German side to review the air service agreement,” said Mr Al Suwaidi. “We are talking with the German side to at least approve this schedule [between Etihad and airberlin].”
He also said that he thinks that the Germans want to review the “fair competition clause” of the air services agreement.
“We don’t mind doing that. We think that our operators were fairly competing with their operators,” said Mr Al Suwaidi.
However, he suggested that there is no point for the UAE to discuss fair competition with Germany alone, since it is already discussing the topic with the European Union.
In March, we will be discussing “the fair competition clause” between the GCC and EU. This clause will be applicable for individual states such as the UAE and Germany, he said.
Mr Al Suwaidi said the UAE wants to add more frequencies in Italy and France.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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