Now, we have to temper this by pointing out that politics has a say in the creation of national airlines; because of the national aspect of traffic rights too, managed by the civil aviation authorities of each country, which are the administrations and inter- faces between the airlines and the governments of the countries in question. We can see this with the conflict in Ukraine. Western airlines can no longer fly over Siberia : this has fun- damentally changed the economic conditions for flights to Asia. To get to Tokyo, flights take at least two hours longer and you have to go via the Pole route. To get to China, you have to take the southern route instead of the northern one. As for the Chinese airlines, they continue to fly over Siberia: this creates an imbalance with the supply of Western airlines, whose costs are no longer the same, nor are ticket prices. As a result, there are far fewer flights to China than there were before the conflict. In the West, we're a little blinded by the signing of the so-called Open Skies agreements: within Europe, between Europe and the United States, any airline can apply for traffic rights. We imagine that every- thing is simple everywhere. This is not at all true: Asia, Africa and the Middle East are governed by traffic rights. Emirates, for example, cannot increase all the frequencies it would like to fly to France, because civil aviation defends the interests of French airlines. In Africa, governments defend the interests of their small, fragile airlines... So politics inevitably has an There is a direct correlation between the growth of the world economy, world GPD and air transport, that’s clear.
impact. And this has an impact on the number of flights offered, and on fares as a result. Only Ethiopian Airlines has developed strongly across the continent and internationally. It's a great success story, which I believe is due to a combination of seve- ral factors. Firstly, the political will to develop this airline by giving it the means to succeed, which was not obvious at the outset. Secondly, the presence at the head of this airline of a succession of leaders, very great airline professionals, who were Ethiopians and great visionaries, with a real school for making Ethiopians progress through their skills, and who succeeded in keeping politics and governments out of the airline's management, even though it is a state-owned airline.
Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: At the origin of air transport, there are the States...
Antoine Huet: Yes, but in my experience, and in all transparency, I would say that it's not the fact of being state-owned or private that will play a role. When you have competent people who know how to manage and keep the share- holder, be it the State or a private company, out of the day-to-day running of the air- lines, then you've got some great success stories! Ethiopian, a state-owned airline; Singapore Airlines, a state-owned airline: all fine companies. And private American airlines; and European airlines that have been privatised, which has allowed them to extricate themselves from the all-too-present control of their governments. The first to follow this path was British
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