Gulf carriers delight as Congress rakes US airlines over the coals
Lawmakers fault lack of competition for plummeting US customer service; could this affect US airlines' campaign for fairer competition with Gulf carriers?
Three Gulf airlines discreetly rejoiced May 2 as Congress lambasted their US rivals at a hearing.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee called the hearing on declining customer service at domestic airlines following a series of well-publicized incidents. These include the violent removal of a paying customer from an overbooked United Airlines flight last month.
Throughout the hearing, House members took turns blaming poor customer service on industry consolidation and dwindling competition. The negative publicity is widely seen as a blow to the Big Three airlines — United, American and Delta — as they lobby the Donald Trump administration to review the open skies agreement with the Gulf airlines, which the US carriers accuse of being unfairly subsidized.
The hearing "should humble the three US major network carriers, but it probably won't," said Kevin Mitchell, the chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an industry trade organization in favor of international competition. "Their arrogance is born of failed corporate cultures that only increased competition from the Gulf carriers and other airlines can reverse. Not in a million years would the cultures at Etihad Airways, Emirates Airlines or Qatar Airways have allowed such atrocious treatment of a guest like Dr. David Dao aboard United Airlines Flight 3411."
