Governments and the major airlines in the Middle East should end their protectionist policies and allow an "open-skies" policy for regional carriers operating aircraft with 85 seats or fewer, according to Jordan's Prince Faisal bin Hussein.
Speaking at a regional-airlines conference in Dubai in late May, Prince Faisal said that, if the obstacles could be removed, deregulation could open up the region in a similar way to that of the USA and Europe, providing links between destinations either not served at all, or served by widebodied aircraft with low load factors.
"State-owned carriers in the Middle East are not interested in operating services on short routes, but, because of the monopolies they have held for so long, they fear competition and refuse to allow others to take over their routes," says Prince Faisal, adding that he believes that those who are trying to "-protect their turf and market share do not realise what benefits they can get by turning over point-to-point destinations to the regionals".
The Prince cites the experience of Royal Jordanian subsidiary Royal Wings, on whose board he serves as an advisor. The airline, which began operations in early 1996 with a leased de Havilland Dash 8-300, took over the domestic Amman-Aqaba route from its parent, which, Prince Faisal says, has already yielded a $1 million improvement in performance.
Source: Flight International
