Crain’s Chicago: Emanuel sides with United, American in Middle East dog fight

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is taking sides in a bitter dispute within the aviation industry and urging federal officials to crack down on Middle East-based carriers that allegedly receive big subsidies from their home governments.

In a letter to three senior federal officials—including U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, a Chicagoan—Emanuel urged them to “freeze” any American expansion by Etihad, Emirates and Qatar airlines, even though the mayor personally welcomed the latter two to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport not long ago.

“Every airline flying into O’Hare must play by the same set of rules,” Emanuel said in the letter (below), which also went to Secretary of State John Kerry and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “But currently, that’s not what is happening.”
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