Minister Peters' ultimatum to Emirates begs question of SAA protectionism

The DA is concerned at reports today revealing that the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, is summoning a United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister to attend an urgent bilateral meeting in South Africa, over the future landing rights of Emirates Airlines in South Africa. Emirates is a critical international travel carrier for inbound and outbound South African leisure and business travel. The review comes after Emirates Airline received an ultimatum on Friday, that the South African government may block the landing of all of its flights in South Africa, after the department issued and then retracted a new landing slot for Emirates, which is itself very problematic. I will today write to the Minister of Transport to implore her that if she presses ahead with her ultimatum to Emirates, and if she holds a meeting with a minister of the UAE government, she does so by way of an open meeting subject to public scrutiny. Something is amiss with the rationale for this drastic action by Minister Peters. When South African Airways reported an operating loss of R991m for the financial year 2012/2013 in January, the airline cited “the weakened rand and said increasing levels of competition and Middle Eastern carriers characterized the period.” If Minister Peters is pressuring a foreign Middle Eastern carrier out of the South African market in protection of South African Airways, the DA will call for the Minister to resign immediately. This strange and urgent action by Minister Peters defies logic, and begs the question of what she intends to achieve by this review of Emirates landing rights in South Africa.