AFP: EU, US expand airline ‘open skies’ deal
Europe and the United States on Thursday signed an expanded airline “open skies” agreement, but the key new goal of removing restrictions on cross ownership of carriers still faces major hurdles.
The two sides agreed to let European and American airlines take majority stakes in carriers from each side of the Atlantic, but the change requires the approval of legislatures before it can take effect.
“Today we are taking an important step forward in our mutually advantageous relations with the United States in the aviation sector,” European Union Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement from Luxembourg, where the document was signed.
The deal, he said, “will help the European air transport sector to emerge from the difficult period it has recently experienced.”
An “open skies” deal was first reached in 2007 after four years of negotiations. It took effect in 2008, eliminating air service restrictions between the United States and Europe and allowing airlines to fly for the first time between any EU city and any US city.
Negotiations for the liberalisation of airline ownership were concluded March 25, but the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expressed disappointment at the time, saying the deal did not go far enough.
The new agreement, which was signed by US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, deals with the thornier issue of foreign ownership of airlines.
EU companies currently can hold no more than a 25-percent stake in US counterparts.
US operators on the other hand are already allowed to control 49 percent of European carriers, a difference which has long rankled with individual carriers.