In its latest Policy Brief update, Lufthansa Group has warned German lawmakers against granting airlines from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) any additional landing rights in the country, as well as reiterated calls for the suspension of the air transport agreement between the European Union (EU) and Qatar.
European hubs and airlines are losing out to UAE carriers
In its Policy Brief update on March 4, 2026, Lufthansa Group stated that the competitive imbalance between European and UAE airlines is growing, with airlines based in the UAE, such as Air Arabia, Emirates, and Etihad Airways, “picking up passengers across Europe to fill their home hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah with transfer passengers.”
As a result, European airports and airlines are losing out.
According to the Germany-based airline group’s estimates, there are 159 weekly flights between Germany and the UAE in the winter 2025/2026 season, which ends on March 29, with 105 of those flights operated by UAE-based airlines, including 63 weekly flights scheduled by Emirates.
Lufthansa Group argued that the recent war between Israel and the United States and Iran, with the conflict spilling over into the wider Gulf region, “underscores how vital European airlines are as a part of European sovereignty.”
“Europe must be able to connect itself rather than depend on hubs in the Gulf region.”
The carrier warned that connections from German hubs have suffered from high location costs for years, and that, while in November 2025 the German government addressed the issue by reducing taxes and other fees, its efforts would be “completely undermined if airlines from the UAE were to receive additional landing rights.”
Lufthansa Group said that Germany would not gain direct connectivity, since the UAE’s carriers use their hubs for connecting traffic, and that “the unequal market volume between Germany/Europe and the UAE” is not the only concern; the group alleged that there are “immense competitive distortions with regard to climate, consumer, and social standards.”
“No other EU country is served as frequently by UAE airlines as Germany is today. Instead of correcting this imbalance, calls for even more landing rights for UAE airlines continue to surface.”
Sidelining Berlin
Lufthansa Group also addressed accusations that a tourism representative from Berlin, Germany, accused the group of “sidelining” the city and other federal states in favor of “shoveling” passengers to Munich Airport (MUC), for example.
In response, the airline group said that its airlines were the market leaders at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), offering daily flights for up to 20,000 passengers. The German company stated that the representative failed to argue why several long-haul routes have failed at BER, adding that it is a weak argument against Lufthansa, which carries passengers from BER to two of its German hubs, since UAE-based airlines will do the same at Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH) or Dubai International Airport (DXB).
Cirium’s Diio Mi shows that, for example, in March, Lufthansa Group airlines will offer 423 weekly departures from BER. Barring Eurowings’ point-to-point network, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will only offer flights to their respective hubs.
Currently, none of the UAE-based carriers fly to BER. Emirates, which has long sought to fly to the German capital, is looking to begin services to BER later this year, according to Bloomberg, yet the DXB-BER flights have not been officially confirmed.
“Unlike European carriers, UAE airlines continue to use the Russian airspace, giving them significant cost advantages,” Lufthansa Group continued, noting that Europe “must safeguard its connectivity and strategic autonomy to avoid dependence on third countries.”
Ending Qatar’s air transport agreement with the EU
Lufthansa Group also reiterated its calls for the EU to end its Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (CATA) with Qatar, noting that, in addition “to the radically unequal market conditions and socio-political disparities,” one of the negotiators of the agreement was involved in a corruption scandal.
“Against this backdrop, it is long overdue for the EU Commission to suspend the air transport agreement with Qatar.”
On February 19, Europeans for Fair Competition (E4FC), a lobby organization that includes various unions and Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group airlines, sent a letter to the European Commission (EC).
The letter urged the EC to “suspend the provisional application of” CATA in light of the dismissal of the Director General (DG) of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), who was involved in the negotiations of the agreement.
“An agreement granting unrestricted access to the EU aviation market cannot remain provisionally applied when the negotiating conditions fail to meet the most basic standards of transparency and accountability.”
Since the only commercial airline in Qatar is its flag carrier, Qatar Airways, E4FC argued that not only was CATA “negotiated under questionable circumstances,” but that the liberalisation of air traffic between Qatar and the EU allowed the Qatari carrier to operate 339 weekly flights from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) to Europe, compared with 14 weekly flights operated by EU-based airlines.
“While the agreement was intended to enable and develop significant improvements in connectivity for secondary airports, it is clear that Qatar Airways' strategy is to draw traffic away from major hubs of key markets, jeopardising regional connectivity in the EU.”
In 2023, POLITICO revealed that the now-dismissed DG, Henrik Hololei, received at least 9 free business-class flights on Qatar Airways at the same time as CATA negotiations between the EU and Qatar were underway.
Rytis Beresnevicius
