The Emirates Airbus 380 has been a beauty and a wonder to many in Canada after it started operating to Toronto in June 2009.
This has given passengers the opportunity to fly to Dubai directly from Toronto for the first time and in much greater numbers with higher quality service in comparison to Air Canada which is expensive and has poor in-flight service. The same is true for many European carers operating on both sides of the Atlantic.
But for Canadian airliners, this is somewhat of a nightmare of competition. While Canadian airliners might not operate to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or the Gulf, they offer transport to European hubs for connecting flights.
A request to increase Canadian destinations has worried Canadian authorities even more. Emirates not only flies direct with great in-flight service but also uses the very much fancied Airbus 380. By granting more destination requests, Canadian authorities fear Emirates will take away much of the Canadian aviation market with competition.
After Canada denied Emirates airlines landing rights, the UAE announced a visa requirement for all Canadian citizens. The visa requirement made it difficult to those traveling to the UAE for tourism, business, transit and other reasons.
There have been calls to resolve the visa restriction to the Canadian government. A good solution in sight would be to allow Emirates operating rights anywhere in Canada that it desires but with taxation. The taxes gained from Emirates should go towards Canadian airliners such as Air Canada and Air Transat.
Should Canada have a legitimate right to impose operating taxes agreed to by Emirates? I don't see why not. Two UAE based airlines (Etihad Airways and Emirates) operate to Toronto whereas not a single Canadian airline operates to the UAE.
Nor do Canadian airliners generate any direct significant competition to these UAE based airlines.
Already these UAE based airlines enjoy frequent flights to Canada without any UAE destination being served by a Canadian airliner so for UAE to demand more landing rights across Canada, why not demand operating taxes?
It's unlikely any customers will fly to UAE or anywhere in the Gulf choosing poor quality service Canadian airlines, so therefor operation taxes remains the best option.
