Emirates slams United for having passenger dragged off a plane

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Emirates Airbus A380

AP

Emirates Airbus A380.

On Thursday, Emirates Airline president Sir Tim Clark weighed in on the incident involving the violent removal of a passenger from a United flight.

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And the veteran airline executive did not hold back.

"Let me say it was a disgrace. It shamed the airline industry as a whole," Clark said to CNNMoney emerging markets editor John Defterios.

"We don't go about our business in that way. It's symptomatic of a corporate culture within that company from the board and chief executive downwards."

Clark then went on to add that had a similar incident taken place at Emirates, he would have reacted by immediately rooting out the cause of the problem before promptly resigning from his post.

This is just the latest episode in the grudge match between the two industry heavyweights.

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Earlier this year, Munoz told Business Insider that Emirates and its fellow Middle Eastern airlines are mere "branding mechanisms" for respective governments and a threat to US jobs.

In March, United, its employees, and members of Congress held a rally at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to protest Emirates' new flight from Newark to Athens, Greece.

Emirates Airlines CEO Sir Tim Clarke

REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

Emirates president Sir Tim Clark.

In an interview with Business Insider last month, Clark fired back, calling the accusations "infantile."

Shortly after the disturbing video of United Flight 3411 surfaced, Emirates released an attack ad complete with a laundry list of awards it has won for exemplary customer service.

Since 2015, American, Delta, and United (the US3) have been complaining about competition from three huge and fast-growing Middle East-based rivals - Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways (the ME3).

According to the US3, the ME3's growth has been fueled by as much as $50 billion in subsidies over the past decade, allowing them to flood the international market and threaten the job security of US aviation workers. They also say the ME3 are in violation of the Open Skies agreements that govern air travel between the US and 120 nations including the UAE and Qatar.

Oscar Munoz United CEO

AP

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz.

The ME3 have repeatedly denied these allegations. Emirates says it has reported 28 years of profitability and returned more than $3 billion in dividends to its investors.

In 2015, Emirates released a report that accused the US airlines of having received more than $100 billion in support from the US government since 2002 in the form of government assumption of pension responsibilities, bankruptcy protection, antitrust immunity, direct grants, loan guarantees, and tax exemptions.

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