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Airlines to Trump: Block Rivals and Privatize Air Traffic Control

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Tail Gunner Joe

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 22, 2005
Posts
203
Donald Trump, a hotelier and former airline executive, has said plenty about immigrants, borders, and free trade. But he hasn?t said much about the multibillion-dollar aviation industry. This huge segment of the American economy has some priorities and complaints that have gone essentially nowhere during the Obama administration, due in part to political gridlock.

With Republicans running both houses of Congress and the White House next year, airlines are now ready to push their case on several issues they hold dear. Most aviation experts say it?s hard to gauge how Trump?s administration might respond, given that it doesn?t owe the industry any favors.
?This is probably not the kind of pro-business Republican administration you might expect,? said Seth Kaplan, managing partner at Airline Weekly, an industry journal, as Trump isn?t tied firmly to a particular ideology and ?doesn?t really have any core beliefs. He?s said certain things in the campaign that he had to, to bring himself in line with the Republican Party a little bit, but it?s not like there?s a history with anything.?
It?s also not clear that the Trump administration would see regulating aviation as a priority, said Bob Rivkin, a Chicago attorney who formerly worked for Delta Air Lines Inc. and at the U.S. Department of Transportation. ?It becomes a question of priorities and capacity to push through Congress laws invalidating regulations when you?ve got a whole lot of other things going on,? Rivkin said. ?In transportation, there are number of things that could be affected, but I think they?re going to be down the list of priorities.?

Also, there?s the populist sentiment that may not mix well with favors to industry. ?The people who voted for him seem to feel that they?ve gotten the raw end of the deal with big business,? Kaplan said.
Nevertheless, here are some of the legislative issues facing airlines:

Air Traffic Control
U.S. carriers, with the notable exception of Delta, are pressing for Congress to transfer air traffic control from the Federal Aviation Administration to a new not-for-profit entity similar to the model used in Canada to control airspace.
Large carriers such as American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. argue that the FAA?s structure and funding are unable to complete a long-delayed airspace modernization program and that the new organization would be more efficient and financially stable. Congress has declined to pursue the issue. But there could be a new movement from the House, especially since the airlines? leading champion in Congress, Representative Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), won reelection. Shuster is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has close personal ties to Airlines for America, the industry?s trade group.

International Rivals
The industry?including its labor unions?is seeking to curb further expansion in North America by a trio of Middle Eastern carriers, Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways Ltd. The U.S. industry has been pressing the current administration for two years to open talks with those airlines? governments over what they allege are tens of billions of dollars in unfair subsidies to the three airlines.
Trump, 70, has vehemently attacked U.S. trade deals he says disadvantage Americans, and airlines are saying the same regarding these competitors.
?We look forward to briefing President-elect Donald Trump and his new administration on the massive, unfair subsidies that the UAE and Qatar give to their state-owned Gulf carriers,? said Jill Zuckman, chief spokesperson for the airline lobby group, Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, in a statement Wednesday. ?Trump would be inclined to not allow subsidized state-owned foreign airlines to compete unfairly against market-driven public companies from the U.S.,? Rivkin said. For now, the Obama administration has been at a ?sort of impasse? over the Middle East controversy, said Brian Havel, director of the International Aviation Law Institute at DePaul University in Chicago.
The same coalition of airlines and unions is also battling efforts by Norwegian Air Shuttle AS to expand internationally with more U.S. service. The airline has been seeking a permit for its Irish subsidiary to serve U.S. destinations. Norwegian?s request to the Department of Transportation has been pending for almost three years.

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Well he aint labor friendly and the bozos at southwest, delta etc just lost the chance to strike with a labor friendly president.
 
Well he aint labor friendly and the bozos at southwest, delta etc just lost the chance to strike with a labor friendly president.

A. Southwest pilots just approved a new contract, and Delta has an even more lucrative TA that it looks like will pass overwhelmingly, so the "chance to strike" isn't really on the minds of either pilot group.

B. The term "labor-friendly president" really has no meaning when it comes to airline unions. We're too small, and make too much money for them to give a crap about us, other than to include us in the groups they want to raise taxes on.

C. No, we didn't lose the "chance to strike, due to Trump being elected. No president, including Obama, either Clinton, or any other Democrat or Republican, would have allowed any of the big four airlines (United, Delta, American, or Southwest) to strike. No way--it would be too disruptive. If any of them got close, the President would convene a "Presidential Emergency Board," and forbid it before it got started--just like Pres. Bush did in 2001. And lest you think it's only a union-busting Republican President who,would do such a thing, then check this or:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/u...tting-philadelphia-regional-service.html?_r=0

President Obama did the exact same thing (used executive power in he form of a PEB) in 2014 to stop a rail transit strike in Philadelphia. And that was just a rail strike in one damn city. Imagine how he would have reacted to a nationwide strike by an airline carrying 25% or more of the air passengers in the entire country.

D. I see you're still an babbling idiot, who can't help but say the stupidest things possible. Don't ever change, Maru--we wouldn't recognize you if you did....

Bubba
 
D. I see you're still an babbling idiot, who can't help but say the stupidest things possible. Don't ever change, Maru--we wouldn't recognize you if you did....

Bubba

The same could be said for you, Brian lol
 
The same could be said for you, Brian lol

Really? This from the guy who says that he's been in "so many airline unions that he knows everything," but in reality doesn't actually understand either the concept of "status quo" or the role of the NLRB in labor negotiations? That's kinda' funny.

"Brian"? Nope. Sorry, Fred--you have me confused with another of your friends that you have a 'love/hate' relationship with.

Bubba
 

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