Hello everyone,
Below is an editorial from the Star.com.
But first a few thoughts.
I have been sitting on the sidelines watching this unfold. There are a couple of things that should be pointed out.
bcflyer, one of your statements points to the hypocrisy of AC. They are using point to point flying as the reason to block this. Yet their real reason for blocking this is NOT point to point. This fight is to allow through flying to Dubai, through one of their alliance partners hubs. If anyone does not think that Lufthansa is in this fight up to their necks, they are naive. This is being fought because the alliance knows they can not compete with better service on a shorter journey. (the stop in europe is eliminated)
Also, your implication that a unionized staff is a justifiable reason for substandard service is not acceptable. Are you saying that AC can not compete with a non union airline and therefore the non union airline should be barred from competing? I have ridden AC on both domestic and international routes and will never do so again.
I also remember when AC proposed the tie up with Emirates. Emirates rightly refused. Why should EK give 50% of the profits to AC when EK is doing most of the work.
UAE citizens have NEVER had the right to enter Canada on a "visa on arrival program", they have always had to pre apply. The process takes 3-4 weeks. Canadians have had the right to come to the UAE and get visa on arrival for years. After several requests from the UAE government, all ignored by Canada, the UAE government started requiring the same from Canadians as Canada requires of Emiratis; they must now pre apply for a visa.
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Siddiqui: Air Canada’s hypocrisy on UAE exposed
Published On Wed Jan 12 2011EmailPrint
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By Haroon Siddiqui
Editorial Page
There once was a healthy relationship, steadily going strong. But it turned sour. Now there’s constant sniping. The bad blood has already cost Canadian taxpayers at least $300 million. An annual trade of $1.5 billion is also at risk. So are the fortunes of the 200 Canadian companies with offices in the United Arab Emirates, Canada’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa.
The penalties come courtesy of Stephen Harper. He wouldn’t allow Emirates and Etihad Airways to increase flights to Canada, ostensibly to protect Air Canada.
But I have a 2006 document in which Air Canada proposed a partnership with Emirates. It called for a coordinated schedule between Canada and Dubai, starting with a daily Dubai-Toronto flight and expanding to other cities. It asked Emirates to operate its own aircraft on the routes. It even suggested flight times to maximize connections with Air Canada.
But Air Canada demanded 50 per cent of the profits, having made minimal investment and taken little or no risk.
Emirates declined. It continued patiently negotiating with Ottawa to upgrade its thrice-weekly Toronto flights to daily, and also fly to Calgary and Vancouver. Etihad also wanted daily flights to Toronto.
They were backed by the governments of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as business and consumer groups.
But Air Canada balked, saying passenger loads do not justify more flights and that letting Arab airlines “swamp” Canada would mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
In fact, additional airline traffic always creates more jobs. An Emirates study shows its new flights would add 1,900 jobs and $26 million in taxes.
Besides, if Air Canada thought there was commercial potential for additional flights in 2006, why does it now argue otherwise, even though traffic has gone up exponentially since?
It accuses Emirates and Etihad of being “subsidized.” They deny it. The world’s largest accounting firm agrees. And with Ottawa protecting Air Canada routes and shielding it from foreign competition, Air Canada is hardly in a position to point fingers at others.
Air Canada does not fly to Dubai or Abu Dhabi, or points beyond in Africa or Asia where the two UAE airlines are taking Canadian passengers, especially India.
Air Canada wants to force them onto its own feeder routes to Europe and deliver them to Star Alliance partners, principally Lufthansa, for onward journeys.
Harper dragged negotiations on for four years, ending them abruptly. His ministers spurned face-to-face meetings with UAE ministers and diplomats. He rejected a long-standing UAE request to extend reciprocity to Emirati citizens to enter Canada visa-free.
Fed up, the UAE imposed a visa on Canadians. Worse, it booted Canada out of Camp Mirage, which we had been using free of charge since 2001 to fly troops and equipment into and out of Afghanistan. It’s the loss of that transit point that will cost Canadians $300 million and more in alternate facilities.
Peeved, Harper accused the UAE of sabotaging the war on terror, linking crass commercial interest to that holy mission, and being unworthy of Canada’s friendship.
The UAE is being given “the full Harper” — pushed around and insulted, says Bob Rae, the Liberal foreign affairs critic.
Rae visited UAE last week, at his own expense, to see if he could help. In his blog Monday, he said: “It is surely an ironic twist that the old Reform party and Stephen Harper have become advocates of closed skies and pure and simple protectionism . . . Air Canada is now being treated as a company to be defended at all costs.”
Indeed, it is being protected at the cost of the far greater national trade and geopolitical interests.
The Harperites lost no time in accusing Rae of being a bad Canadian, sucking up to Arab “royals.”
Taking a cue from the Conservatives, Air Canada’s Duncan Dee took cheap shots at Rae as well.
It’s outrageous that the chief operating officer of a company that relies on Ottawa and must work with all parliamentary parties is entering partisan politics.
All this is instructive at a time when many Canadians are bemoaning the loss of political civility south of the border.
Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus. His column appears on Thursday and Sunday.
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