Emirates Airline, the Dubai-based company eager to expand its flights to Canada, put on an aggressive display of lobbying last week - running the gamut from carrot to stick. While the airline's argument for greater freedom in air travel is entirely commendable, its use of diplomatic threats to achieve this end is not. Canada should heed the call for open skies, but for the right reasons.
On Tuesday, the government-owned Emirates released an independent economic analysis on the impact of increased flights between Dubai and Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
Currently the airline, known for its high-end service and modern planes, is limited to just three flights a week to Toronto.
The report found that shifting Toronto to twice-daily service and flying daily to the other cities would produce an additional $38-million in tax revenue, 1,400 new jobs plus numerous spinoff benefits in tourism and economic development. It would also recognize the growing importance to Canada of trade and travel with the United Arab Emirates. On these arguments alone, the proposal is worthy of support.
While Canada has pursued open skies with our largest partners in Europe and the United States, there has been little interest in extending these efforts elsewhere. Both the regulator, Transport Canada, and the rival airline, Air Canada, claim there is no demand for the flights Emirates is proposing. Yet Emirates clearly believes such a market exists. And it will bear all the risk. The new flights would certainly provide Canadian air travellers with more choice.
Unfortunately these solid arguments have become clouded by some unseemly diplomacy. Last week The Globe reported that the UAE wants to make Emirates' flight requests a condition for renegotiating the lease on Canada's crucial military staging post in the Persian Gulf.
The existence of Camp Mirage, Canada's forward operating base in the Middle East, has never been formally acknowledged by the Armed Forces. Nonetheless, it is widely known to be in Dubai, and its lease comes due this summer. Loss of the base would pose a problem for Canadian military's operations in Afghanistan.
Turning Camp Mirage into a bargaining chip to crack open Canada's air-travel market undermines the legitimacy of Emirates' arguments and raises fresh concerns about the coercive powers of allegedly independent state-owned enterprises such as Emirates.
Canada ought to open its skies to any country that provides equivalent access to Canadian airlines. But these negotiations should be motivated by the inherent economic advantages, not threats from foreign governments.