Today, all U.S. airlines are covered by bilateral Open Skies Agreements negotiated by the U.S. State Department with 120 countries, ensuring fair and free trade in airline services for both American and International operators. Under those agreements, the airlines are free to determine and expand their own routes to and from all other nations covered by those agreements.
The terms of the agreements, however, ban government subsidies to their own national airlines. Yet, U.S. airlines are currently in direct competition with three, high priced, Middle East luxury airlines the Americans say are in open violation of the government subsidy ban: Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways. Together, they have received over $50 billion in national government Middle East oil money.
No comments:
Post a Comment