In un'intervista il CEO di MEA Mohammed El-Hout, si lamenta della situazione della concorrenza di AZ sugli scali italiani:

"They have 11 flights a week to Beirut and they are selling below costs as they are looking for cash,” he says. “I have to follow them [in cutting prices], and this makes my routes to Rome and Milan unprofitable… Open skies therefore have to have safeguards,” he argues. “When you have price dumping, you have to have controls.”

Ma i problemi sussistono anche altrove:

For about the past two years, MEA has been wanting to increase frequency on their London Heathrow route from 5x weekly (daily except Mondays and Fridays) to daily and they have been wanting to increase frequency on their Frankfurt route from 3x weekly, however have been unable to as they have not been able to acquire slots at descent times for these airpor. The airport authorities at these two airports are granting Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways virtually unlimited slots and at anytime they want, while the slots they offer MEA are either at bad times or force MEA to layover in the airport for many hours.