Berlin wants Emirates. Emirates wants to fly to Berlin. But German law prevents it…unless Emirates gives up another lucrative German route. Welcome to the politics of Emirates in Germany.
Michael Müller, the mayor of Berlin, is courting Emirates. He wants to see nonstop flights between Dubai and Germany’s most populous city. Emirates, having reviewed market conditions, believes it could successfully operate a daily service to the German capital.
But German law stands in the way.
Per the current bilateral air services agreement between Germany and the United Arab Emirates, Emirates is limited to operating to only four cities within Germany. Those four cities are currently:
- Düsseldorf
- Frankfurt
- Hamburg
- Munich
Thus, to start service to Berlin is not as simple as filing paperwork…it would require giving up one of its routes above.
Noting how profitable its existing four German destinations are, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the CEO of Emirates, said he’s willing to start service to Germany only if properly “incentivized”. Speaking to Arabian Business, Al Maktoum said:
This issue has been going on for a long time. I think, for the Germans, sticking to the four points they are firm in that, that they don’t want to expand it. For us also we have invested a lot in those four points…
It is always like this, if you want me to go somewhere I should be given an incentive why to fly to a point. In many countries they do. If they want you to fly there they will give you an investment, I mean incentive, to fly.
Absent an incentive, Emirates is pushing Berlin to push the German government to relax the four city limit imposed on Emirates.
Lufthansa To Blame?
Müller blames Lufthansa for putting pressure on the government to block Emirates’s expansion while at the same time refusing to add its own longhaul service from Berlin. After Air Berlin’s demise, Lufthansa briefly started nonstop service between Berlin and New York JFK, but canceled it only months later.
Addressing the slot restrictions, a Lufthansa spokesperson told Arabian Business:
The bilateral air service agreement entitles UAE carriers to choose four destinations in Germany. For the time being Emirates has selected Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg as its preferences. However, if Emirates gave up one of them, Berlin could immediately be integrated into its flight schedule.
That’s a question of company strategy. Air service agreements are supposed to ensure an ambitious level of connectivity as well as an international level playing field including a fair and balanced market access for all airlines involved.
That logic is a bit twisted when Emirates is willing to offer nonstop service to Germany’s largest city when Lufthansa refuses, forcing passengers to connect in Frankfurt if flying Lufthansa.
CONCLUSION
Emirates faces barriers to entry in many countries and is hardly unique in that regard. But with Germany one of its most profitable markets and Berlin underserved, time will tell if powerful lobbying from the Berlin Government and from Emirates may loosen up Germany’s Emirates slot restrictions.
image: Laurent ERRERA / Wikimedia Commons
I agree with Emirates and am sick of Lufhansa´s monopoly. As someone living in Berlin it really strikes me to see one of Europs´s biggest cities so underserved. There are hardly any long haul routes. Especially for Asia, where two stopovers are often required for many destinations.
AA recently started serving TXL but up until then the revenue generated there just wasn’t worth it. It still isn’t worth a daily year round flight there either. If Berlin was such a goldmine Norwegian, AA, DL and a host of Asian carriers would have jumped on it. Unfortunately being one of Europe’s biggest cities doesn’t mean its necessarily profitable.
Well if there was an actual market and an airport fit to serve the aircrafts, maybe long haul flights could be added to Berlin.
I don’t see why Lufthansa’s so-called monopoly is to blame here…
It isn’t just Emirates that are bound to this Etihad is as well. I think Emirates is already getting some sort of exception here but doubt they will get to add Berlin without giving anything else up.
It’s only fair, this is how these bi-laterals work. LH can also only fly to 4 destinations in UAE, the fact they have nothing more to offer besides Dubai and Abhu Dhabi isn’t LH’s fault.
This German protectionism sounds very American to me. DL should be proud of LH.
This is how it works when there is no open skies agreement in place. Happens everywhere, not just in the US or Germany. Now the flexibility to add new routes may be a bit more loose in some countries but ultimately countries are protecting what they think are higher priority interests. Really isn’t anything special or uncommon.
No, this is how it SHOULD work in the US. Sadly we have open skies agreement with UAE, which obviously favors them. They get to access all of our airports, we get two…whoopie. UAE has abused open skies treaties and govt subsidies to build their mega hubs, which would not exist otherwise.
Berlin could pressure the government by perhaps getting that long awaited airport completed. TXL is far to small to grow.
Crazy. Everyone flies to Frankfurt ( a city I find to be utterly charmless and have zero interest in returning to) but no one goes direct to Berlin ( a city of great charm but a PITA to get to). How about doing what passengers want rather than Lufthansa beancounters/lobbyists/hangers-on?
Interesting that Berlin can only support Air Canada Rouge, AA and DL seasonally and only UA (obviously with some frequent flier loyalty to LH helping it) flies year round. That says a lot about a market. Chinese airlines haven’t flocked down en masse yet and even Singapore Airlines is sending Scoot down there instead of flying themselves. Berlin may be a big city, doesn’t mean the market is airline friendly to operate in and as they want to make money this is kind of important.
Emirates being given an exception to fly there could actually do more damage than good as it could end up taking out the few airlines that are headed to Africa, Middle-East or Asia that do currently manage to survive there.
Also, this quote is missing in this article here for some reason but it belongs:
“If you want me to go to somewhere, I should be given an incentive why to fly to an airport. In many countries they do, they want you to fly there, they will give you an incentive… It is more for the Germans and Berlin that they should push their own government to agree to something like that.”
So, its also a case that they want to be incentivized to fly to Berlin. Pffffffff
?
The quote has always been part of the article.
Apologies you are right. Though I think the last part of the quote isn’t up there?
Tons of Aussie expats in Berlin. One stop service to Australia via Dubai makes a lot of sense.
Berlin does not strike me as being particularly important for business and industry. Sure, it’s the capital, but it’s also a complete s*hole in many parts, and filled with poorer people such as artists. While I’m sure Emirates could turn a profit on the route (fuel subsidies), I doubt that it is comparatively more advantageous than the other German cities.
cant they operate dusseldorf/hamburg 3/4 days and berlin the rest of the days. lets says dusseldorf 4 days, hamburg 3 days and Berlin – 7 days. so any given day Emirates will fly to only 4 german cities.
Hamburg used to be served by a 777-300ER daily, then it became two 777-300ER and now its an A380 and 777-300ER daily. There is demand in Hamburg. Berlin, not so much.
Furthermore, Germany is decentralized. Many of our industries are located not in the capitals but in the provinces – especially to the west and south. The major business centers are Frankfurt, Munich and Cologne. Thus it made more sense for Emirates to fly to these three cities in the first place.
Berlin is of course served successfully by Qatar so it’s not as though there is an absence of Gulf carriers completely.
Maybe on a day that BER opens there will be some movement but at the moment TXL and SXF really only have the capacity to support O&D traffic and as such the market is limited.
Would they fly to Tegel or SXF if they got the rights to?
Emirates should start a new airline, Emirates Berlin, owned mostly by Germans, that flies from HAM to TXL with a close connection with the DXB flights
nice work, i appreciate your work.
excellent (y)