Emirates steps up campaign for more flights
Emirates is pushing ahead with its campaign to increase flights in and out of Australia with Chief Executive Tim Clark holding talks with Transport Minister Warren Truss.
Mr Clark argued his carrier had not stolen market share from Qantas. Rather, it had “brought people to Australia who, we believe, would not have come if our air service was not [here].”
“We believe that we haven’t done damage to anybody. We do not believe that we have damaged Qantas,” Mr Clark said.
“In the time we have operated [to Australia] since 1996, Qantas’s profitability has grown and grown and grown,” Mr Clark said on a stopover in Sydney yesterday. His comments came barely one hour after Qantas issued a profit downgrade yesterday morning.
“If it’s a question of a pie not growing then you’re taking market share. This part of the pie didn’t exist,” Mr Clark said, noting that Emirates’ 22 European destinations were stimulating traffic to Australia from areas Qantas did not service.
“We will grow the pie, we’ll do our business, they [Qantas] will do theirs and I hope we’re both profitable.”
He said the airline would ask for a phased-in introduction of the additional air rights which would culminate in four daily flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth by 2014. “This is a phased growth which we believe to be non-confrontational,” Mr Clark said.
Qantas chief executive Peter Gregg, however, argued Emirates had snared market share from other airlines.
“We don’t believe what Emirates is saying is correct. We believe there’s a lot of substitution going on there,” he said.
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