European airlines voice concern over Chinese counterparts ‘unfair advantages’

Calls are growing among European airline carriers to address what they say is an unfair advantage enjoyed by their Chinese counterparts, who can fly directly over Russia to Europe and offer customers shorter travel times and cheaper ticket prices.  

Many European carriers have been banned from Russia’s airspace in response to sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Additional environmental costs make it harder for European airlines to compete against Chinese carriers. 

Speaking at an industry press conference on Wednesday in Brussels, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr urged changes that would require all flights into Europe to avoid Russian airspace. 

“We are not allowed to cross Russia but Chinese carriers are. If you want a level playing field, we need to ensure any airline landing in Europe avoids Russian airspace. Until that happens there will be enormous advantages to Chinese carriers,” Spohr said, according to Reuters. 

Bloomberg reported that according to sources familiar with the matter, Air-France KLM, a Paris-headquartered airline group, is lobbying the French government to add a cap to the number of flights to Europe from Chinese carriers to protect European airlines from unfair competition. 

Earlier this month, Marjan Rintel, CEO of KLM, called on Europe to take measures against what she said is an unlevel playing field, when speaking with Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, or NPO. 

“Europe can at least look at how we can prevent that unfair playing field by pricing it or looking at it in a different way,” Rintel said. 

European airlines have not flown over Russian territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine’s airspace has also been closed.  

The remarks from Lufthansa’s CEO are not the first time that flights from China have aroused concerns from other countries. During the COVID pandemic, the United States took action to limit the number of Chinese airlines flying into the country which ultimately resulted in both Washington and Beijing creating caps on flight numbers. 

Some European airlines have already canceled routes to China.  

Later this month, Lufthansa will cancel its Frankfurth to Beijing flight and Air China will become the sole airline flying between the two cities. In July, Virgin Atlantic canceled its London to Shanghai flight, its only route to China. 

The EU and China have been at odds over various issues regarding trade, technology and national security in recent years.  Some fear recent tit-for-tat actions between China and the EU could lead to a trade war. 
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