CANNES, France, 30 October 2004 — The head of the Dubai-based airline Emirates dismissed suggestions here yesterday that the company receives government subsidies and special access to the oil market. “It has been claimed, in several arenas, that Emirates has no need to join alliances, no desire to reduce costs, or even turn out a profit as it is protected and subsidized by the government of Dubai,” Timothy Clark told the Cannes Airline Forum.
“I have heard those arguments and quite frankly they don’t wash.”
Clark was responding to remarks from Air France Chairman Jean-Cyrill Spinetta, who during last year’s Cannes forum expressed concern about airlines that have no domestic market to serve and generate traffic at points far from their hub. He said he hoped such companies would continue to be managed according to market-based economic principles “and not according to other principles.” Clark yesterday argued that “Emirates receives not one iota of government subsidy.” “Emirates also does not receive cheap or free fuel, nor does it have a bottomless pit of capital as some seem to think.” He said that when the carrier was established in 1985, the government “gave us $10 million in cash and told us not to come back for more.”