Emirates responds to backlash over Dubai-Athens-New York route

Emirates Airlines has responded to criticism from US carriers over its new “fifth freedom” daily service from Dubai to New York with a stopover in Athens, saying the route has been underserved thus far.

“The fifth freedom service that Emirates will operate between Newark and Athens has been poorly served to date,” an Emirates spokesperson said, adding that there was no existing year-round direct air service between both cities.

Fifth freedom rights refer to the ability to carry revenue traffic between two foreign countries as a part of services connecting an airline’s own country.

Such rights are already “actively used by the US legacy carriers in their Pacific traffic, particularly the Tokyo hubs operated by Delta and United,” the spokesperson added.

Emirates announced on Monday that it would operate a new service daily between New York’s Newark airport and Dubai via Athens from March 12, 2017. This would be in addition to the carrier’s existing four daily flights between Dubai and New York’s JFK airport.

The decision sparked criticism from the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, a lobby group representing US airlines, which said Emirates was “flagrantly violating” the air services agreement that allows it to fly to the US, Reuters reported.

The Dubai-Athens-Newark flight will provide a year-round non-stop daily service between the US and Greece – a service that does not currently exist and has not offered since 2012, Emirates said.

The new route will be Emirates’ second fifth freedom flight to the US, in addition to an existing Dubai-Milan-New York service.

Emirates and other Gulf carriers have been accused by their US counterparts in the past of benefiting from government subsidies – a claim that GCC-based airlines have denied.

In a statement published on its website, Emirates said that allegations about it receiving subsidies or competing unfairly are “patently false.”

“There is no ‘secret’ to our success. What the ‘big three’ US legacy carriers want is protection from competition, but that outcome would only harm American consumers, communities and the national economy,” the airline said. 

Write to Jerusha Sequeira at jerusha.s@argaamnews.com