Johannesburg — DUBAI's Emirates airline has accused the German government of anticompetitive behaviour, after it told the airline to raise its business class fares on certain routes, including those serviced by rivals Lufthansa and South African Airways (SAA).

Emirates president Tim Clark has taken exception to a letter from the German government urging it to raise its business-class fares on routes including Frankfurt-Johannesburg, saying the request was anticompetitive.

Emirates, which serves the route with a stopover in Dubai, competes directly with Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partner, SAA, both of which would benefit from an Emirates price increase.

The letter from the German Federal Office for Goods Transport accuses Emirates of "illegal" business-class fares and of "price leadership" on three international routes -- Frankfurt to Johannesburg, Hamburg to Singapore and Berlin to Singapore.

"We were told that we must raise our fares immediately so that these aligned with certain other carriers, specifically two Star Alliance members. Given the scale of fines being threatened, Emirates had no choice but to adjust the tariffs in question," Clark said in a recent speech published in the airline's magazine, Open Skies.

"We did so under protest."

Clark said Emirates priced its tickets commercially, competitively and fairly for consumers. "How else have we remained profitable, with a loyal customer base? Yet the German policy removes our ability to compete fairly with our one-stop service via Dubai against direct competitor services on these routes."

In the case of the Frankfurt- Johannesburg route, Emirates' tariff was not even the lowest offered by a non-European Union carrier, and the tariffs offered by British Airways, KLM and Air France were significantly less. "Can you imagine Mercedes asking the government to force Lexus to raise its price to match the German car, and this being law?"

The Department of Transport's Anwar Gany said SA would not tolerate collusive behaviour. He said one of the aims of SA's airlift strategy was to provide affordable air transport.

Allan Moore, CEO of the Board of Airline Representatives in SA, said on Friday nothing had come to light on the letter to Emirates. "However, we monitor collusive behaviour and the board would not encourage such behaviour."

In a letter in response to the German demands, Emirates senior vice-president Andrew Parker said that if the United Arab Emirates were to adopt a similar policy, Lufthansa would be guilty of similar "price leadership".

Parker accuses Lufthansa of offering Dubai-London business- class fares that were 38% cheaper than Emirates'. The data, which date to August last year, also claim Lufthansa's fares from Dubai to Los Angeles were 44% cheaper than those of Emirates.

Andreas Marquardt, president of the Federal Office for Goods Transport, said that due to German tariff policy guidelines, price leadership from Germany to non- EU destinations can be allowed only for EU carriers. "A non-EU carrier such as Emirates is therefore not allowed to engage in price leadership in the fifth/sixth freedom traffic ex-Germany to non-EU destinations."

On Friday, Lufthansa said it had not approached the German Federal Office for Goods Transport and the department had acted independently after Emirates breached the bilateral agreement in place. "Part of the traffic agreement stipulates that Emirates are not permitted to offer a fare for a Frankfurt- Johannesburg routing if they undercut the Lufthansa fare."