Delta Air Lines plans to announce new international routes in the coming weeks after U.S. and three Gulf carriers resolved a more than three-year-old dispute over unfair competition, the airline's CEO said Monday.
Delta and competitors American Airlines and United Airlines have complained for years about the expansion of three Persian Gulf carriers — Qatar Airways, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Dubai-based Emirates Airline, saying they receive state subsidies that have created unfair competition for the U.S. airlines.
In a January 2015 paper, the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies, a lobbying group representing the three U.S. airlines, said the three Middle Eastern carriers have received more than $40 billion in government subsidies and other "unfair advantages in the last decade alone." The Persian Gulf airlines have denied those allegations.
