Luftfahrt: Emirates fliegt vorerst nicht nach Berlin

Emirates, the state-owned airline from Dubai, will initially not fly to Berlin as its fifth destination in Germany. Tim Clark, the CEO of Emirates, stated this at a flight conference called "World Routes 2026" in Frankfurt on Wednesday afternoon. The German government had granted airlines from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) additional traffic rights in September.

Emirates has been pushing for several years to be allowed to land at more airports than before. The necessary rights are negotiated between the respective countries. Clark pointed to the agreement between the UAE and Germany, which apparently is interpreted differently on both sides. "We must ensure that the spirit and the way it was translated were correct," said the Emirates CEO.

Only when there was clarity would Berlin be on the flight plan. Currently, Emirates is allowed to land at and take off from four airports in Germany, as often as the company wants. However, Clark also wanted to add Berlin and Stuttgart to the flight plan. However, German aviation associations, airlines like Lufthansa and Condor, as well as trade unions opposed this.

They fear the loss of German jobs because transfer flights could be moved from German airports to the Dubai hub. According to the new regulation, a UAE airline can offer seven connections per week, or one per day, at an additional airport in Germany. This does not have to be Emirates; it could also be Etihad or Flydubai, which are also based in the UAE.

But in the industry and also in government circles, it was assumed that Emirates would use the rights - and specifically for the German capital airport. However, there are conditions. Emirates would presumably not increase the number of flights at any of the other locations in Germany if the airline were to fly to Berlin as the fifth German airport.

Specifically, this would mean that the airline would not be able to offer a third connection per day to Dubai from Munich, which it has done in the past. Additionally, it was reported in the industry that the airline using the new traffic rights would no longer be allowed to fly from German airports to third countries, a term known as the "Fifth Freedom."

There is apparently some ambiguity in the wording, according to industry sources. In the past, Emirates, for example, flew from Dubai to Hamburg and then continued to New York.