European Pilots Union Urges Germany to Resist UAE Airline Traffic Rights Expansion Ahead of State Visit
Why It MattersThe dispute highlights growing friction between European carriers and Gulf airlines over hub connectivity, competitive fairness and Russian airspace access advantages.
The European Cockpit Association (ECA), representing more than 44,000 pilots, is pressing Germany not to grant additional traffic rights to UAE airlines, intensifying a policy dispute timed to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's state visit to Germany on September 9. During the visit, President Al Nahyan is scheduled to hold talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with the agenda covering economic and development cooperation as well as regional and international issues.
ECA Vice President Paul Reuter warned that expanded UAE access could divert long-haul connecting traffic from European hubs to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, weakening European airlines, employment and feeder networks. "Europe cannot continue opening its aviation market indefinitely when the airlines involved operate under fundamentally different conditions," Reuter said. "Competition is important, but it must be fair." ECA also cited Russian airspace access as a competitive imbalance, noting that EU airlines are barred from Russian airspace and must fly longer routings to many Asian destinations, while Emirates and other UAE carriers continue to overfly Russia, giving them shorter routes and lower operating costs in some markets.
The warning echoes arguments made by Lufthansa Group, which published a policy brief in March opposing expanded UAE airline access to Germany, contending that approximately 80% of Emirates' German traffic connects through Dubai rather than providing nonstop links beyond the UAE. Emirates currently serves four German cities — Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich — and under the existing bilateral framework would need to drop one destination before adding another; the carrier has sought to launch routes to Berlin and Stuttgart.
Scheduled Germany-UAE seat capacity has declined amid the Middle East crisis, with OAG Schedules Analyser data showing airlines offering approximately 296,100 two-way seats in September 2026, down 14.6% from 346,800 in September 2025. All scheduled capacity is now operated by UAE carriers: Emirates leads with about 205,300 seats (69.3% of the market), Etihad Airways provides approximately 79,400 seats (26.8%), and Air Arabia accounts for the remaining 11,400 seats via its Sharjah–Munich route, while Lufthansa and Condor, which together provided nearly 26,300 seats in September 2025, have since suspended service. Bilateral trade between Germany and the UAE exceeded €13.6 billion ($15.8 billion) in 2025, with German imports from the UAE rising by more than 50%, according to the UAE Foreign Ministry, and about 2,000 German companies operate in the UAE.
