- Banned
- #1
http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/blog/seat2B/2016/02/richard-anderson-delta-foreign-policy.html?ana=yahoo
Consider, for example, Anderson's campaign against the Export-Import Bank. Anderson poured millions into lobbying to shut down the 82-year-old U.S. credit agency and did so for only one reason: Since he was running Delta with an endless stream of older aircraft, he saw no reason for international competitors to get discounts on loans to purchase American-made Boeing jets. Anderson couched his complaints in more patriotic terms, of course, but his grievance against the Ex-Im stemmed solely and completely from Delta's own financial interests.
Anderson was even more reckless in his battle with the Big Three Gulf carriers. He filled the airwaves with invective, half-baked statistics and ethnic innuendo. He apologized for the nastiest assertion, but hardly anyone took the mea culpa seriously. And he never once considered that U.S. national interests in the Middle East are inextricably tied to the governments in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Besides, Anderson's shouts of "Subsidy!" hurled at the Gulf Carriers rang especially hollow when you examine Delta's actions. It shares the SkyTeam Alliance with Saudia, wholly owned by the government of Saudi Arabia. Also in SkyTeam and a Delta code-share partner? Alitalia. That hapless carrier has been repeatedly bailed out by Italian taxpayers and is now 49 percent owned by Etihad of Abu Dhabi, one of the Gulf Carriers whose policies Anderson claims to find so repulsive. Several other SkyTeam partners are also de jure or de facto subsidiaries of their nation's government and Anderson doesn't have any gripe with them.
Anderson also had no problem with the equity investment he made on Delta's behalf in China Eastern. Yet China Eastern is the carrier most frequently and lavishly subsidized by the Chinese government. Since Anderson wants access to China Eastern's Shanghai hub and the vast Chinese market beyond, however, he's uttered not a peep against Chinese subsidies.
Anderson isn't going quietly into that corporate good night, either. In recent weeks, he's attempted to throw a spanner into delicate U.S.-Japanese negotiations for more access to Tokyo Haneda, the closest airport to the Japanese capital.