Canada urged to improve aviation competition

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) late on Tuesday called on Canada's policymakers to take action to improve the competitiveness of the country's aviation sector, including reducing the heavy tax burden. Market experts believe that Gulf carriers will succeed in obtaining additional landing rights in Canada despite the government's strong opposition. Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have long been struggling for rights to fly to more Canadian cities and to increase frequencies on existing routes, but have faced severe resistance from national carrier Air Canada as well as aviation authorities in Ottawa. "Over time the Gulf carriers will get more flights and they will face continued parochial pressure in the short term," says Andrew Charlton, analyst at the Aviation Advocacy. Meanwhile, despite competitive disadvantages, recent developments offer reason to be optimistic that Canadian policymakers are starting to view aviation as a "strategic asset", IATA pointed out in a statement. "Canadian government policies including a high tax burden hamper aviation's ability to serve as an even greater catalyst for economic growth and jobs creation even though Canada is home to leading global aviation organisations including IATA, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Airports Council International (ACI)," said Tony Tyler, IATA's director-general and CEO, in an address to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. Charlton said: "I think it is right to link growth and thus taxation to liberalisation. There needs to be more understanding of their relationship. "The pressure from Air Canada is very high and not going to stop in the short term. It is also completely hypocritical." Emirates and Etihad, meanwhile, currently operate three flights a week each to Toronto. The Canadian government turned down Emirates' request to fly to Calgary and Vancouver and to increase the frequency of flights to Toronto. However, the governments of the UAE and Canada have stepped up efforts to improve trade relations. An Emirates spokesperson told Gulf News: "The landing rights discussions are a matter for the Canadian and UAE governments, so not one for us to comment upon," adding that Emirates enjoys healthy loads on its Airbus A380 service to Toronto. "The Canada situation is special. Obviously, they want to protect Air Canada. "But they also want to protect Bombardier," said Addison Schonland, a partner at AirInsight. He added that Qatar was given access to Montreal in part because of an expected order for Bombardier's CSeries aircraft. Discussions: High-level delegation Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, is currently heading a high-level delegation to Canada. He has held discussions with Gerald Keddy, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Canadian Minister of International Trade, on ways to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries. Meanwhile, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, met Canadian counterpart John Baird in Ottawa on Monday as they announced a nuclear co-operation deal between the two countries. Baird said Canada-UAE relations were "going in the right direction."