Lufthansa calls for suspension of EU flight deal with Qatar

Deutsche Lufthansa called on the European Union to suspend its bilateral aviation agreement with Qatar, citing corruption allegations against the Gulf state that also owns Qatar Airways. Lufthansa Chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calling for the suspension of the 2021 agreement, which allows unlimited flights between any airport in the EU and Qatar. The letter follows investigations into the so-called Qatargate affair, in which European Parliament officials were allegedly bribed by the state. “In view of the serious allegations of corruption, the EU-Qatar air transport agreement must be suspended immediately,” Kley and his co-chair Christine Behle wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News. A Qatar Airways’ spokesman declined to comment on the Lufthansa letter. The intervention by Lufthansa’s supervisory board leaders comes after Qatar Airways added flights between Hamburg and Doha, giving the Gulf carrier a fifth city pair in Europe’s largest economy. The new service, which started in July, allows travelers in northern Germany a way to fly to Asia and other destinations in the Middle East via Doha, bypassing Lufthansa’s hubs in Munich and Frankfurt. Lufthansa’s supervisory board also complained about European carriers being at a disadvantage to their Asian rivals as they were unable to overfly Russia, forcing carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM to fly more circuitous routes. <br/>