An aviation lobby wants “full transparency and a legal investigation” into the open skies deal with Gulf state.
BRUSSELS — Europe’s top airlines are questioning the validity of the EU-Qatar aviation deal after allegations of corruption in its preparation, according to a letter to the European Commission seen by POLITICO.
The European Network Airlines Association (ENAA), a lobby representing Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, among others, sent the letter to the Commission’s transport department DG MOVE on Feb. 3.
The document calls it “alarming” that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation into Henrik Hololei, the former director general of DG MOVE. The Estonian official reportedly passed confidential information to Qatar in exchange for luxury vacations and gifts for himself and his family.
He left his post in March 2023 after POLITICO revealed that he accepted free flights on Qatar Airways while his team negotiated the aviation deal with the Gulf state.
In a comment after the report, Hololei said he had acted in accordance with the rules.
The allegations have the airline lobby questioning the open skies deal with Qatar.
In its letter, the ENAA called for “full transparency and a legal investigation … to clarify if the validity of the Agreement can be upheld.”
The Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ENAA letter.
The prosecutor’s office did not comment on the state of progress on the investigation into the former DG MOVE director.
The lobby also objected to what it called a “continued lack of financial transparency from Qatar” in meeting its obligations under the aviation agreement, which includes rules on fair competition between European airlines and Qatar Airways.
The letter said when Qatar was asked about Qatar Airways’ financial situation and possible violations of the rules, “Qatar has only submitted unsubstantiated written answers, without any solid evidence.” It called Qatar’s most recent responses in November “self-declarations.”
“The European Commission must therefore act now to ensure that compliance with the Agreement is safeguarded,” the ENAA added, calling on DG MOVE to invoke an article of the aviation deal requiring Qatar to provide “the necessary evidence that it respects the Agreement’s fair competition obligations within 30 days.”
Open skies deal
The EU-Qatar air transport agreement was signed in 2021 and announced as a “new global benchmark by committing both sides to fair competition, and by including social and environmental protection.”
It allows EU airlines to operate direct flights from any airport in the bloc to Qatar and vice versa for Qatari airlines.
The Gulf state has been accused of subsidizing Qatar Airways with public funds, something European airlines can’t do. The state-owned airline rejects those accusations, but EU carriers feel that the Commission hasn’t been strict enough in enforcing the open skies deal.
“It remains unclear to me to what extent the transparency and fair trade clauses in the agreement have been enforced with Qatar,” said Wouter Dewulf, an air transport economist at the University of Antwerp.
“Qatar Airways and Doha Airport are the primary beneficiaries of this agreement,” he said, while very few European airlines are taking advantage of the deal to operate out of the Doha hub. “Many European airlines, such as KLM and Lufthansa, have been forced to scale back their networks to the east due to increasing competition from Middle Eastern carriers.”
The ENAA letter comes after Lufthansa on Dec. 5 directly asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “immediately” suspend the agreement.
In January, Air France-KLM CEO Benjamin Smith called for the deal to be revoked because it gives Qatar Airways full access to the European market, while EU airlines have no market in Qatar.
