Delta: We'd fly direct to India if it weren't for unfair competition from Mid-east airlines

Mar 6, 2015, 3:36pm PST

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Delta operates four international routes from Seattle, but not to India.

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Steve Wilhelm

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Delta Air Lines would be flying direct to India from Seattle were it not for government subsidies given to competitor Emirates Airlines.

That's according to Delta spokesman Trevor Banstetter, who explained why Delta has banded together with the other two big U.S.-based international airlines, American and United, to fight back against subsidies of their three big Middle East-based competitors.

On Thursday the three made public documents that they've already been sharing with the U.S. government. The three carriers, which have formed a group they're calling the "Partnership for Open and Fair Skies," are asking that those subsidies not be allowed.

"We're not really competing against airlines, we're competing against governments," Banstetter said.

The airlines have become an economic development tool for the countries, rather than businesses, he said.

The U.S. carriers have found some pretty strong evidence of $42 billion worth of government subsidies to these three airlines, Banstetter said, referring to Emirates, Qatar and Ethiad airlines.

"What that does is it very much distorts the market place," he said.

In a Friday story in the Wall Street Journal, spokespeople for all three Middle East carriers denied the subsidies. The three have quickly become some of the largest airlines in the world by offering affordable and high-quality long-range air travel to all parts of the world, with flights running in and out through their hubs in the Middle East.

The contention parallels another issue that has been advanced by Atlanta-based Delta in recent years, protesting that the use of Federal Ex-Im loan guarantees to sell Boeing aircraft to the Middle East carriers gives the foreign carriers a financial advanta