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29 March 2024

GCC carriers soar unshackled by striking unions

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Tim Clark and James Hogan, the bosses of Emirates and Etihad Airways, must be thanking their lucky stars they do not have to deal with uppity trade unions. Most of Europe's airlines appear to be marching towards confrontation with their unions over the pay cuts and job losses that nearly all carriers have been forced to impose.

British Airways cabin crew walked out on strike for three days last week and started four days of action on Saturday while Lufthansa has also struggled in a dispute with its pilots. Air France and Portugal's TAP have come close to experiencing their own walk-outs and even Virgin Atlantic's pilots have demanded to reopen pay negotiations.

There is a lot to commend collective bargaining and the protections offered by a union but the disputes in Europe really are a last hurrah for the airline union movement. The bosses will almost certainly win because if they don't, the airlines will whither and die – just as General Motors did.

The Middle East's carriers, by contrast, generally do not have to worry about strikes but that is not always the boon for bosses that European airline managers might imagine. The downside of having a highly mobile workforce is that employees can simply go home if they don't like their jobs. So, in some ways the GCC airlines have to work harder to impress their employees than international rivals.

Clark and Hogan may not have concerns about industrial action hanging over them but they do have to worry about providing accommodation, healthcare and training for their ever-expanding workforces. Of course, if you had to choose which dilemma to face, I suspect the GCC carriers would come out on top every time.