The U.S. airlines are pressing the government to break existing agreements with the UAE and Qatar. United Continental, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the three biggest U.S. airlines, turned to the government for modifying or annulling air treaties with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. They claim that Etihad Airways, Emirates Airline, and Qatar Airways get a number of grants from their states and stick to dumping.
Moreover, Emirates representatives said they aim to make the United States its third largest source of revenue. According to United Continental, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, the state-owned Gulf airlines have received $42.3 billion in subsidies since 2004. At the same time, the carriers got other advantages, including tax exemptions. All these factors contributed to stepped-up expansion of the Arab airlines and finally drove out the U.S. companies from Asian markets. In these circumstances, open skies treaties between the United States and the UAE and Qatar hurt American carriers and thus should be either abandoned or substantially revised, the heads of the U.S. airlines said.
