Emirates forced to lift premium fares ex Germany
DUBAI – Emirates is fighting a move by authorities in Germany demanding that the airline charge more for its business class tickets on flights out of Germany to destinations in Asia and South Africa.
Emirates says it has been forced to raise the price of business class fares on routes from Frankfurt to Johannesburg and Hamburg to Singapore by as much as 20 percent.
Failure to do so would incur fines starting at Euros 25,000, said Andrew Parker, the airline’s VP for public affairs, speaking to Business Traveller.
The airline will raise the issue with the European Commission.
The head of Germany’s central transport watchdog, the Federal Office for Goods Transport, wrote to Emirates saying that as a result of negotiated agreements on flights between Germany and other countries, Emirates was “not allowed to engage in price leadership” on routes out of Germany to non-EU countries.
Emirates believes it is being specially targeted by the German authorities in a bid to protect the national carrier, Lufthansa.
Business travellers are thought to be flying Emirates via Dubai to their final destinations rather than paying more to fly direct with Lufthansa.
Business Traveller has compared prices quoted by online agent opodo.de and found that flying between Frankfurt and Singapore in next week would cost:
Euros 3,274 on Emirates,
Euros 3,455 on Turkish Airlines
Euros 3,548 on Qatar Airways,
Euros 5,279 non-stop on Qantas
Euros 5,453 non-stop on Lufthansa
Between Frankfurt and Hong Kong, the prices for business class were:
Euros 2,125 on Qatar Airways
Euros 2,533 on Korean Air
Euros 2,743 on Emirates
Euros 4,641 non-stop on Cathay Pacific
Euros 5.041 non-stop on Lufthansa
Footnote: Starting March 28, 2010, Emirates will fly non-stop to Tokyo five times a week on every Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The service will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft offering a three-class configuration of eight First Class Private Suites, 42 Business and 304 Economy Class seats.
Ian Jarrett
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