It was not that long ago that Emirates Airways was making international headlines for their splashy television commercials featuring Hollywood A-list actress, Jennifer Aniston. It was not only big news that the airline was shelling out millions of dollars to Hollywood elites for endorsements, but also the content of the commercials was controversial to say the least.
In the ads, Emirates mocked U.S. airline workers – hard working Americans – as lazy, old, and unpleasant. The ads were disgusting and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of American workers who strive every day to deliver safe, reliable, and comfortable travel to millions of travelers, in the U.S. and internationally.
It is therefore ironic that the CEO of Emirates, Tim Clark, is calling on U.S. airlines and their employees to “grow up” and comparing them to a “three-year old at the playground.” Seriously?
The U.S. airlines and their employees have put forth a fact-based campaign based on forensic accounting of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways financials, which are not yet otherwise publicly available in any meaningful way. For Clark to suggest otherwise is yet another weak attempt to distort the truth and distract for the real issue at hand: that Emirates and the other UAE-owned airline, Etihad, as well as Qatar Airways, are taking billions of dollars from their respective governments and using that money to predatorily expand and dump seat capacity into markets that otherwise would not sustain such growth. This subsidized expansion is driving U.S. airlines off routes, costing U.S. jobs and the loss of expansion opportunities for Americans. These are the facts.
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