Asia Bizz: Jobs Under Threat In UAE Airlines Feud: Canada
Tens and thousands of jobs would have been under threat after the recent UAE airline feud with Canadian government. This situation would have seriously arose, if Canada had to provide the UAE’s national airlines more aerial landing rights. For the condition between the two countries have become diplomatic and the former transport minister John Baird said: “We had negotiations with the United Arab Emirates. The offer that was on the table was not in the best interest of Canada.”
He added that the offer would have instantaneously cost Canada tens and thousands of jobs and thats the reason they have answered a ‘no’. The whole issue began when Canada was asked to close down its military base site in Dubai, which was the main supply route of equipments and supplies to its troops in Afghanistan.
The reason Canada was asked to do so was, when the country refused to give UAE bound airline carriers, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways, more landing rights in Canada. Situations between the two countries worsened when the Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay, was on a plane that was bound to Canada from Afghanistan, but all of a sudden UAE refused that very plane to use its airspace, as a result the flight had to take a longer route.
With such a bruised relation between the two countries, Mackay has stated that it will be taking at least 10 years to improve relations between the two countries.
