Emirates Airline A380 commercial aircraft touches down at Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada.Greig Reekie
Emirates Airline says consumers are the losers as Air Canada benefits from protectionist rules that are preventing the Dubai-based carrier from expanding in Canada.
Andrew Parker, Emirates senior vice-president of international affairs, said Air Canada enjoys an unfair advantage on international flights in and out of Canada.
He made the comments Wednesday after Air Canada chief executive officer Calin Rovinescu slammed Emirates during a speech in Vancouver on Tuesday. Mr. Rovinescu described a recent Emirates-commissioned study as "the stuff of fairy tales," disputing the report's claims that there will be $480-million in annual economic benefits and 2,800 jobs created if the Middle East carrier is allowed to beef up service on its Toronto-Dubai route and expand to Calgary and Vancouver.
"Canadian consumers lose out if competition is constrained in the interest of protecting the national carrier," Mr. Parker said. "Consumers are being denied reasonable options to travel."
Transport Canada has said Ottawa's policies support competition as long as there are reciprocal gains for Canada, but the current capacity supplied by Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways exceed travel demand, so there isn't any seat shortage between Canada and the UAE.
Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada, said he's disappointed by Air Canada's attack on Emirates because the interest of passengers has taken a back seat to protecting Canada's largest airline and its membership in the Star Alliance of carriers.
"Give me break. There are advantages to consumers to having Emirates expand," Mr. Cran said.
But Paul Benoit, president of the Ottawa International Airport Authority, said residents in mid-sized Canadian cities face losing point-to-point service to overseas destinations.
Air Canada provides daily non-stop service between the Canadian capital and London's Heathrow Airport, as well as flying the Ottawa-Frankfurt route. If Emirates were allowed to ramp up flights on its Toronto-Dubai route, it would siphon many travellers away from Ottawa in favour of the Toronto terminal, Mr. Benoit cautioned.
"It's not just Ottawa. Think of what would happen with other second-tier Canadian airports. There's an economic impact if smaller cities either lose their international flights or don't get additional ones," Mr. Benoit said.
Emirates, owned by the Dubai government, said its passenger loads between Toronto and Dubai have been healthy, with a load factor - the proportion of seats filled by paying customers - of 89 per cent in 2008 and 91 per cent in 2009. Emirates said it carried 99,288 passengers on the Toronto-Dubai route in 2008 and 122,870 people last year.
Mr. Parker said Air Canada and the Canadian government refuse to recognize that Emirates' expansion would be "a boon for the Canadian economy by growing a key region of the world that is currently grossly underserved."
The United Arab Emirates has requested that Ottawa grant Emirates greater access to Canada in exchange for extending permission for the Canadian Forces to stay at Camp Mirage, a Persian Gulf base that serves as a crucial jump-off point to Afghanistan.
Mr. Parker said Emirates "can't comment on what may have transpired government to government."
Emirates wants to increase its Toronto-Dubai flights to twice daily from the current three times a week, and introduce daily service into Calgary and Vancouver.
The foreign carrier "is very confident that our case for reasonable access is overwhelmingly in Canada's national interest," said Mr. Parker, who added that he rejects "Air Canada's premise that access from a competitor is a bad thing."
Brent Jang