Trump Greets Airline Chiefs at White House; Qatar Airways Chief Defiant Over U.S. Rivals Claims
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: The bell ringing on Wall Street, the Dow is at a record, they like the sound of what they're hearing and what they're seeing on Wall Street. We are getting to why the Dow is so strong on today, as trading comes to an end. Oh, look at this. They've clearly got the bit between the teeth. A robust gavel on Thursday, the 9th of February. Airline executives land at the White House, but Donald Trump promises a phenomenal future. Kellyanne Conway is now in trouble after she advertises for Ivanka Trump. And economic freedom fighters land a few punches on the floor of South Africa's Parliament. A real thrasher. Will have the details. I'm Richard Quest, tonight, coming to you live from CNN Abu Dhabi, where I still mean business. Good evening. Donald Trump has promised to do phenomenal things for U.S. airlines. Indeed, for business, generally, as he welcomed aviation executives to the White House. Now, Mr. Trump wants to help airlines compete, and he said that he was planning to do, in his words, something phenomenal in terms of tax. Which for the first time, we got some sort of dates, some sort of time scale. He expects an announcement in two to three weeks. As for the industry, itself, he wants to overhaul the obsolete U.S. airport's infrastructure, and he began by acknowledging that there's trouble brewing with foreign carriers.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I know you're under pressure from a lot of foreign elements and foreign carriers. I've been hearing that a little bit. At the same time, we want to make life good for them, also. They come with big investments. In many cases, those investments are made by their governments.</s>QUEST: Donald Trump now, what we are appropriately tonight in the capital, and in the country of two of those airlines, those foreign carriers that he was talking about, Etihad and Emirates. You're going to hear from the chief exec or the chairman of one. And you're also going to hear tonight from the chief exec of Qatar airlines. So, we are well positioned to give you the other side of the airline story tonight. Both sides, in fact. At the White House, Donald Trump was joined by the who's who of aviation executives. In terms of the chief execs, there was Delta's CEO there, United, JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska, FedEx, U.P.S., and Atlas. Doug Parker of American was absent due to a scheduling clash. The representatives of airports from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville that were also present. Athena Jones joins me from the White House. Athena, fascinating, because they have -- although there are many areas of controversy, they really needed to stick today to those areas that the industry could unite behind, not, for example, the issue of open skies and Gulf competition.</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Richard. That's exactly right. The president signaling that he wasn't really prepared to get involved in those issues U.S. airlines have with those three-big Middle Eastern airlines you mentioned. Qatar Airlines, Etihad and Emirates, that are heavily subsidized by governments, because the president is arguing, that look, they make big investments in America. They buy jets and jet engines from American companies like Boeing, like General Electric, and United Technologies. And that produces thousands of jobs. And so, while you hear a lot of talk about America first, I think the White House would argue that this is putting American jobs first, not getting too involved on that front. What he did do is make a lot of the same promises we've heard him make to -- in his other meetings with business leaders, promising to slash regulations, make the biggest cuts in regulations anyone's ever seen. Promising to invest in infrastructure. I know from my colleague, Rene Marsh, aviation correspondent, that infrastructure was discussed quite a bit. He mentioned at least four times the need to rebuild America's airports. And so, those are areas where there is going to be agreement. Investing in infrastructure, updating airports, improving air traffic control systems. President Trump, of course, used to operate his own east coast shuttle airline, some years back, before it went into bankruptcy. But aviation experts who were there in that meeting said he appeared knowledgeable about the topic, and he complained a great deal about U.S. airports, how they used to be the best in the world, but now they're on the bottom rung. So, those are the areas of agreement in that meeting. Richard.</s>QUEST: And indeed, he -- talking of air traffic in the U.S., he referred to his own pilot, Donald Trump has his own 757, and he sort of said -- I mean, listening to the way he was quoting his own pilot, you know, I sort of felt that his pilots who believed that much of the procurement of new equipment was obsolete. It was almost policy making. How did it strike you?</s>JONES: It is interesting, the kinds of details that he was able to offer in this meeting. He called his personal pilot a, "real expert." He said he's a smart guy who knows what is going on. And President Trump said that this pilot of his said that the government had been buying the wrong equipment. Now, I'm no expert. I don't know exactly what equipment he is referring to there, but that is what he told these aviation execs, when it comes to some of the things he thinks need to be done to improve the U.S. airports and air traffic control system. Very interesting comments. Richard.</s>QUEST: Athena Jones, thank you. The chief executive and the chairman of Emirates, has been speaking exclusively to CNN. Sheikh Ahmad says the airline makes an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy, as it helps to create thousands of jobs. Emirates has spent billions of dollars on planes made by Boeing. Now, Emirates, you can see the airline, Emirates is the world's largest operator of the 777. It has a variety of variants, the 200, the 300, it's bought be 8 and it's bought the 9X. So, it's about 161 of the 200s and the 300s in service at the moment and 174, including the newest variants later. Emirates' chairman told me he's not worried about the uproar over open skies.</s>SHEIKH AHMED BIN SAEED AL MAKTOUM, CHAIRMAN AND CEO EMIRATES: We signed a bilateral with the U.S. in 1999. It was actually the Americans that were pushing for this agreement to be signed as an open sky policy, which we did. And since then, I mean, we've been operating to the U.S. as of next March, we'll be operating about 18 flights daily to the U.S. and that's really a big contribution in terms of sums and also, we should be ready to forget that Emirates had the biggest order on its 777. We nearly invested now over $140 billion in total. That really has created a big number of jobs within the U.S., when it comes to Boeing or the</s>GE. QUEST: So, you're not worried, or are you worried, that Donald Trump will decide to reopen the issue of open skies?</s>SHEIKH AHMED: No, I'm not worried. I think the case, they should look at it in a very open way. I think we've been always transparent, in terms of the financial that we really put out every year, looking at Emirates and what we've been doing over the years since it started in 1985.</s>QUEST: Was it wise to announce the launch of the fifth freedom fight over Athens? You may be legally entitled to it, under the treaties with the EU and the U.S., but it's a bit like poking the bear to sort of just at the wrong moment, isn't it?</s>SHEIKH AHMED: No, it's not really about poking the bear at the wrong time. As I said, you know, we have a bilateral and this is the way.</s>QUEST: Well, it's provocative, some would say.</s>SHEIKH AHMED: No, I don't think so.</s>QUEST: You don't?</s>SHEIKH AHMED: No.</s>QUEST: What about the wider issue now, the immigration ban against the seven countries and the change in the refugee policy. It's been described, although the administration refuses, as a Muslin ban. How do you see it?</s>SHEIKH AHMED: You know, when we talk about any country banning people to come in, and not really going into religion here, our service, if we're talking about the airline, always when people book to us, we don't say what religion you are. You know, our purpose is to take people from point a to b. You know, I think that's always up to the administration and also to the government of the U.S. and the people of the U.S. it is their decision, whether they will be coming in or out.</s>QUEST: Do you think there are going to be some very difficult times ahead for Emirates in the United States?</s>SHEIKH AHMED: There shouldn't be. I mean, we do have a good relationship with the U.S. for a long period of time. When it comes to business, tourists, we've really supported the business. And we always want to see more people going to the U.S., and also vice versa.</s>QUEST: Now, the lobby group, Partnership for Open and Fair Skies, argues fiercely that state-owned airlines from the Gulf are exploiting their access to the U.S. market. Joining me from Washington is Jill Zuckerman, the chief spokesperson for the group. Jill, good to see you and thank you for joining us to talk these matters over. Jill, you know, I don't really want to get into a he said/she said on the question of subsidies, because that argument is -- we're not going to make ground on that argument, frankly, since you have a diametrically opposed point of view. But answer the point that they are making, the Gulf carriers at the moment, that they do contribute sizable sums to the U.S. economy through the purchases of tens of billions of aircraft and avionics and engines?</s>JILL ZUCKERMAN, PARTNERSHIP FOR OPEN & FAIR SKIES: Well, Richard, thanks for having me on, and I would love to address that point. But first, I just want to say how much American, United and Delta appreciated President Trump taking on this issue and expressing his willingness to help. He's clearly very knowledgeable about the aviation industry and he understands this issue in particular. I have to say, it's getting a little tiresome to keep hearing the Gulf carriers say they spend billions of dollars on the U.S. economy, on hiring Americans, on buying Boeing aircraft. The fact of the matter is, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar employ 1,300 people in the United States. The U.S. carriers employ 300,000 people in the United States. We are customers of Boeing. We have 585 aircraft on order. The Gulf carriers only have about 500 on order. And if the Gulf carriers continue to undercut us and to take away international routes from the U.S. carriers, then we won't be able to employ as many people in the United States, and we won't be able to buy as many aircraft from Boeing.</s>QUEST: Right, but do you -- the argument of jobs, they obviously point out that there is an economic benefit to the places where they bring passengers, if, for example, in the case of Orlando, Emirates quantifies that as $200 million a year.</s>ZUCKERMAN: Well, Emirates is using, you know, euphoric figures. Those passengers are our passengers. Those passengers would still get to Orlando, if Emirates wasn't flying that route. But the real issue is these fifth freedom routes they're flying from Milan to JFK, and now they're saying they're going to go from Athens to Newark. And they announced that on the third day after President Trump went into office. It was not just a poke at the bear, it was a sharp stick in the eye.</s>QUEST: Now, hang on a second, Jill. No U.S. carrier offers year-round service from Athens to the United States. The seasonal service. The carriers that do are Greek carriers. The law is quite clear that they can do it. The Milan route has been a success. Are you not pointing at a --?</s>ZUCKERMAN: Richard, these are subsidized carriers. Let's talk about Athens to Newark. The reason a U.S. carrier doesn't fly year-round is because it's a money loser. And the reason Emirates is able to do is because it's massively subsidized by the UAE. It doesn't matter if they lose money. They're happy to lose money, as long as they're able to push the U.S. carrier off the route. That's the scheme by the Gulf carriers.</s>QUEST: Not necessarily. Not necessarily. The fifth freedom route allows you to hop from one to the other. And by definition, a U.S. carrier could fifth freedom over Athens on to somewhere else in Europe and make money.</s>ZUCKERMAN: Let's be honest. The flights from Dubai to Athens to Newark, nobody's flying from Athens to Dubai. They're just going to use the Athens to Newark part, or just the Milan to JFK part. They not actually going to Dubai. And the problem is with the whole scheme. The Gulf carriers are so massively subsidized, we've documented $50 billion, which nobody is disputing, except the Gulf carriers. And it allows them to do things that are not economically feasible. It's a violation of our open skies agreement, and we're really appreciative of the fact that President Trump has said he will enforce our international agreements.</s>QUEST: Jill, thank you, as always. You've come on and gave a robust argument, of which we are grateful. And I know we'll be talking more about this in the future. Thank you, Jill.</s>ZUCKERMAN: Thank you, Richard.</s>QUEST: And you'll be hearing from the Qatar Airways chief executive a little later in the program. Twitter's CEO says the whole world is watching the company and today on Wall Street, they may have been watching, but they witnessed a major sell- off. Talk about that after the break.