BangersAndMash wrote:DUSZRH wrote:onwFan wrote:I have wondered about this too - Clearly, it is nothing but the hold they over the EU. All of this despite IB/UX’s combined share not even reaching the share that LH/AF/KL have at their hubs. Without a dominant carrier, MAD will never get any route diversity. It will just be the same old high demand routes flown multiple daily by IB and UX with both carriers not making much money, while some others esp. LH and KL print money with their monopoly.
How do you come up with the conclusion, they are being treated differently?
When did AF or KL bought an airline operating at CDG/AMS?
When DE went bankrupt in 2019, there were demands by politicians in Germany that LH should buy it. And of course they considered, but given the concentration in FRA it was clear that it wouldn’t go through (even though the rules for bankrupt companies are a bit more relaxed as it “saves” jobs).
When AB went bankrupt, LH wanted to buy HG (niki), which held a large slot portfolio in DUS and a minor in TXL, but it wasn’t allowed (or better the concession was to give up nearly all new slots in DUS), given the large concentration of LHG in DUS. HG became Lauda/FR.
Actually, you're raising an important point.
Let's be honest, the Bundeskartellamt is one sick joke! Apparently, doing LH's bidding is more important than ensuring a healthy level of competition in the German market or protecting consumers from predatory monopolies. Your examples speak for themselves.
The French actually do the same, they're just a bit less overt about it. They're achieving consolidation by ensuring any competitor to AF fails at the first sign of financial difficulties. Aigle Azur, XL Airways spring to mind. Vueling offered to take over Aigle Azur's profitable routes but was ignored. Defending AF's position at Orly was clearly more important than saving a few hundred jobs.
The end result is still the same though. LH/AF/KL are still more anti-competitive than IB+UX but they're not being challenged. So yes, IB is at a disadvantage and treated differently.
Indeed LH lobbies a lot. A sign of that is their offices in Brussels and Berlin solely for the purpose of blocking further competition against their airline through lobbying at the Bundestag and EU Commision (if there are any other airline who have their physical office in Brussels for those reasons please say). On Linkedin-In they post positions for "Lobbying officer" multiple times.
Lufthansa actually posted a story about it on their website.
"My internship at the Lufthansa office in Brussels enables me to learn how a company can concretely represent its interests to the EU-institutions and to deepen my knowledge in the exciting field of aviation (policy)"
"The team consists of the Head of the Office, a Manager EU Affairs and an intern who changes every six months. Almost everyone you meet is surprised that the entire Lufthansa Group, is represented by only three people in Brussels. Due to the fact that the office is relatively small, we deal with a huge variety of topics and as an intern, one is very involved in the daily work and gets assigned many different tasks. These include e.g. the research and
monitoring on EU-legislative projects, the preparation of briefings and the participation in events. Every day brings fresh tasks and challenges for me as an intern. At the moment two of the main topics are the “SES” (Single European Sky) and climate topics like “SAFs” (Sustainable Aviation Fuels).
During the last months, there were a lot of conferences and events on these two topics. One of my personal highlights was the “Joint Aviation Sustainability Event”, organized by IATA, ATAG and Finland and the “High Level Conference on the Future of Single European Sky” in September. During the last months, I have learned that events and networking are essential components in finding the right contacts and successfully representing the interests of the Lufthansa Group"
https://blog.be-lufthansa.com/en/exchan ... -brussels/It is legal, as what U.S carriers do in Washington (where B6 and other legacies have an office). Surely this is also why the Openskies treaty for Germany-U.A.E has not changed even though EK has demanded it multiple times and there is the demand for it.
When AB was also headed for bankruptcy, LH's CEO went to Abu Dhabi with Merkel during her state visit to discuss a takeover of the carrier. I would believe in anyone's eyes for that to be anti-competitive............