While Canadian airports are actively trying to develop air services, their efforts to recruit carriers from the Middle East and parts of Asia are being hampered by their own government.
Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways in particular have been vocal about their inability to add services to Canada. The Canada-UAE bilateral, which was last expanded in June 2003, permits only three weekly flights from Dubai and three weekly flights from Abu Dhabi. Transport Canada has turned down multiple requests to give UAE carriers more rights, claiming the current rights are sufficient to meet the demand of travellers whose origin or destination is either Canada or the UAE.
In speaking at the Air Cargo Conference at Routes, Emirates senior vice president of cargo Ran Menen called restrictive countries such as Canada "pennywise, pound foolish". Emirates is now operating Airbus A380s on its three weekly Dubai-Toronto flights at load factors exceeding 90% and would cherish the opportunity to operate more passenger flights to Canada. Menen says Emirates is also currently unable to operate freighters to Canada because unlike other bilaterals the outdated Canada-UAE pact has not yet decoupled the passenger and cargo sectors.
Menen says "protecting a few dollars for a national carrier" makes no sense when "you have billions of dollars in opportunities with commerce". He adds that "some countries tend to protect the national carrier and miss out on greater opportunities - whether it is tourism or cargo".
Qatar Airways is also interested in launching service to Toronto but has said it will not open the route unless it can serve the market daily. The current Canada-Qatar bilateral only allows two weekly frequencies.
Qatar Airways senior vice-president for the Americas Tony Hughes says Canada is now Qatar's biggest single offline market. Hughes says on Qatar's Houston-Doha flight an average of 25 passengers per day originates in Calgary or Edmonton. About half of Qatar tickets sold by the carrier's Canadian office have passengers connecting onto Qatar flights in London while the other half connect at Qatar's three US gateways.
Singapore Airlines also cited the restrictive Singapore-Canada bilateral in deciding to drop its Vancouver service last year. Changi Airport deputy director of airline development Donald Tan says the current bilateral restricts services to only three weekly flights. But he says more crucially there are restrictions on third and fourth freedom rights which only permit airlines to pick up passengers in Seoul and Taipei. Potentially more lucrative Asian pick-up markets such as Hong Kong and Tokyo are off limits.
"It's a bilateral issue," Tan says. "It's a challenge."
Source: Flight Daily News
