Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A Protectionist Open Sky

I know, somehow it does not sound right, but bear with me.

In the last few days a row between Saudi Arabia and Egypt Civil Aviation Authorities erupted over traffic authority for NAS and SAMA to operate between Madina and Cairo.

The MENA region is moving towards Open Sky no doubt, however protectionist policies have put a twist on Open Sky. UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt among others have open sky policies.

However, Egypt has always had a protectionist policy towards Egypt Air. The row erupted because NAS and SAMA wanted to operate Madina to Cairo under the terms of the Open Skies bilateral between the two countries. Egypt, has declared that Cairo International Airport does not receive LCC flights, which is a strange way to get into open sky.

Egypt CAA has refused Air Arabia access into Cairo in 2003, forcing Air Arabia to operate into Alexandria's secondary airport Al Nozha. This has actually improved traffic into Alexandria from three carriers (Egypt Air, Lufthansa and Olympics by the way Lufthansa pulled out) to having every regional carrier operating there on daily basis or seasonal summer traffic (Emirates, Royal Jordanian, Gulf Air, Etihad and a few others demonstrating the power of open skies, recently Air Arabia Egypt, with an Egyptian AOC was refused access to Cairo and will operate from Alexandria.

The whole point of restricting LCC and other traffic is to protect Egypt Air. Even Egyptian unscheduled carriers have restrictions imposed on them.

The question is does Egypt Air require protection? Egypyt is a country of almost 80 million inhabitants and a large expatriate population spanning the globe. For a long time the largest Arab carrier and has recently joined the Star Alliance. So why does a world class airline require protection?

Egypt Air did not have the reputation of being an efficient and lean carrier. This has changed and even though they are not the leanest airline in the MENA region they have improved enough to join the Star Alliance and to have a robust MRO that does cater to foreign carriers' maintenance requirements.

So is that an Egypt Air requirement to be protected or is it a government authority that kept doing whatever it was doing for decades. Open Sky is good for a country witness the growth in Alexandria.

It is about time the Egyptian CAA changes its protectionist policy towards Egypt Air (this protectionism does not extend to other Egyptian carriers) and embrace a true Open Sky policy.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Labels

1 Goal 2010 2012 2013 9/11 AA Abu Dhabi ADAC Air Arabia Air Canada Air India Airberlin aircraft airlines airports ambitions American Airlines Amman aviation AVOD AWST B707-300C B767 B777 B787 BA Bahrain Bahrain Air BangaloreAviation Boeing branding British Airways Business Aviation Cabin Crew Canada change chapter 11 CO Commercials communication community compliance contingency continuity Continuous Improvement cost effective creativity Culture curricula Customer Service Delta Detroit Metro DFW Doha DTW Dubai Dubai Air Show DWC efficiency emergency Emergency Response Emirates employees environment ET409 Etihad ETS EU FA FAA family Flight Attendants flight(s) Flightglobal flydubai GACA Galaxy Tablet GAMCO GCC globalisation GOL Greece Green Gulf Air Hala Hamburg happy health home Hopenhagen Human Resources IFE India Iran Iraq Iraqi Airways Jaffa Jazeera Airways Jet Airways Jordan Just Culture Kuwait Airways LA LCC leadership low cost maintenance management manpower MEA MEBAA MENA Michigan motivation MRO MROAM Oneworld Palestine passengers passion people Philadelphia planet earth Privatization professional QAIA Qantas Qatar Qatar Airways Quality Quick Service Restaurant Radio Repair Stations Risk road roots ROTANAJET Royal Jordanian Safety Sanctions. Sao Jose Dos campos SAT Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian Airlines Security Sharjah Airport SimliFlying Simplicity SKYTEAM SMS social media Southern California Southwest Airlines Star Alliance Sudan Airways support target teachers Technology terrorism tolerance Toulouse tourism traffic Training transition travel TSA Turkey Twitter UA UAE UBM US Airways VIA Rail Violin Vision volcanic ash Wataniya Airways
 
Top Blogs
Powered By Invesp