Travel could be set to become costlier for passengers, that is according to the world’s biggest long-haul airline.
“In the end, the prices of what we get charged as a result of tariff imposition will be passed through as they have to, to consumers, so prices are likely to rise,” Emirates president Tim Clark said Monday in a speech at the 2019 Aviation Show.
The US has stated it will introduce a 10 per cent levy on European jetliners following a World Trade Organization ruling that Airbus has benefited from illegal state aid. And Boeing faces similar accusations that are due to be determined in 2020 by the WTO.
Airbus has said it favors a negotiated settlement to the conflict after the WTO announced $7.5 billion in tariffs against the EU.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, told reporters in Luxembourg Thursday that he doesn’t want aviation to become the latest front in global trade wars, but that the bloc will hit the U.S. with sanctions if a settlement isn’t reached in the long-running dispute over aircraft aid.
The U.S. plans to target duties at goods including aircraft, though not jetliner parts, leaving the door open for Airbus to minimize the impact of the levies by supplying as much of the American market as it can through its assembly line in Mobile, Alabama.
Emirates has curbed capacity and rationalised routes in response to a slowing economy, which has seen “a flattening in our growth,” the executive said.
