NYRANGERS
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2002
- Posts
- 592
Hopefully foreign carriers will find the competition too much. I'm not sure why or how US policy makers think this is good for America.
Reuters
UPDATE - US, EU pleased with air pact talks, set new round
Friday December 12, 10:06 am ET
By Patrick Lannin
(Adds industry comments)
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Talks on a new transatlantic airline pact that could liberalise the EU-U.S. air market and boost mergers made progress this week, negotiators said on Friday, although key differences remain.
ADVERTISEMENT
One concrete conclusion was a plan to draw up a sketch outline of a deal for another round of talks in Washington in February, although the document will have many gaps.
"We think the talks were quite productive and yielded progress to a comprehensive agreement," John Byerly, deputy assistant U.S. transport secretary, told reporters.
He said the first text of a new transatlantic "open skies" pact would put "in brackets" the areas of disagreement.
The European Commission is leading the talks for the 15-nation EU after the bloc's top court ruled some provisions in present U.S. airline pacts with European nations broke the law.
The EU has pushed for as wide a deal as possible, including an end to ownership limits. It also wants airlines to service each other's domestic routes, but has an issue with Fly America rules, in which U.S. officials must use a U.S. carrier.
Byerly said the focus of the talks was indeed a comprehensive deal, although the track of simply amending current deals to meet EU law was going on in parallel. He said the two sides had set an action plan of the issues to tackle.
"The Commission is pleased with the significant progress made and the ambitious calendar of work that has been set," said a spokesman for EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio.
"We are happy about the willingness of the Americans to negotiate and hope for as wide an agreement as possible."
INDUSTRY HAILS PROGRESS
Industry group the Association of European Airlines was also pleased the two sides were going for a wide agreement.
"AEA members are particularly pleased with the fact that both sides have concluded that amending current bilateral Open Skies agreements is not a practical option, and that they have decided to address outstanding issues in the context of an Open Aviation agreement," the group said in a statement.
A deal could help mergers as it would remove the national restrictions of current accords that stopped, for example, a once-planned British Airways (London:BAY.L - News) link with KLM (Amsterdam:KLM.AS - News).
The United States is the biggest non-European market for EU airlines, notching up almost 16 million passenger boardings in 2002, according to the Association of European Airlines. These data do not include Virgin Atlantic , a big player.
The U.S. market is the world's biggest with North Atlantic routes key to revenues on both sides due to lucrative business class flights. Airlines also have alliances, such as oneworld, which includes BA and AMR Corp's American Airlines (NYSE:AMR - News).
For the U.S. side, one issue is EU restrictions on night flights for noise reasons. U.S. negotiators also reassured the EU side over the Fly America restrictions.
The EU Commission stressed its final goal is to end ownership restrictions in both markets. It also wants full rights to fly within each other's domestic market, known as cabotage, despite resistance from trades unions.
U.S. firms also want free access to Britain's Heathrow airport, where only two U.S. carriers, American Airlines and UAL Corp's United Airlines (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - News), can fly.
Reuters
UPDATE - US, EU pleased with air pact talks, set new round
Friday December 12, 10:06 am ET
By Patrick Lannin
(Adds industry comments)
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Talks on a new transatlantic airline pact that could liberalise the EU-U.S. air market and boost mergers made progress this week, negotiators said on Friday, although key differences remain.
ADVERTISEMENT
One concrete conclusion was a plan to draw up a sketch outline of a deal for another round of talks in Washington in February, although the document will have many gaps.
"We think the talks were quite productive and yielded progress to a comprehensive agreement," John Byerly, deputy assistant U.S. transport secretary, told reporters.
He said the first text of a new transatlantic "open skies" pact would put "in brackets" the areas of disagreement.
The European Commission is leading the talks for the 15-nation EU after the bloc's top court ruled some provisions in present U.S. airline pacts with European nations broke the law.
The EU has pushed for as wide a deal as possible, including an end to ownership limits. It also wants airlines to service each other's domestic routes, but has an issue with Fly America rules, in which U.S. officials must use a U.S. carrier.
Byerly said the focus of the talks was indeed a comprehensive deal, although the track of simply amending current deals to meet EU law was going on in parallel. He said the two sides had set an action plan of the issues to tackle.
"The Commission is pleased with the significant progress made and the ambitious calendar of work that has been set," said a spokesman for EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio.
"We are happy about the willingness of the Americans to negotiate and hope for as wide an agreement as possible."
INDUSTRY HAILS PROGRESS
Industry group the Association of European Airlines was also pleased the two sides were going for a wide agreement.
"AEA members are particularly pleased with the fact that both sides have concluded that amending current bilateral Open Skies agreements is not a practical option, and that they have decided to address outstanding issues in the context of an Open Aviation agreement," the group said in a statement.
A deal could help mergers as it would remove the national restrictions of current accords that stopped, for example, a once-planned British Airways (London:BAY.L - News) link with KLM (Amsterdam:KLM.AS - News).
The United States is the biggest non-European market for EU airlines, notching up almost 16 million passenger boardings in 2002, according to the Association of European Airlines. These data do not include Virgin Atlantic , a big player.
The U.S. market is the world's biggest with North Atlantic routes key to revenues on both sides due to lucrative business class flights. Airlines also have alliances, such as oneworld, which includes BA and AMR Corp's American Airlines (NYSE:AMR - News).
For the U.S. side, one issue is EU restrictions on night flights for noise reasons. U.S. negotiators also reassured the EU side over the Fly America restrictions.
The EU Commission stressed its final goal is to end ownership restrictions in both markets. It also wants full rights to fly within each other's domestic market, known as cabotage, despite resistance from trades unions.
U.S. firms also want free access to Britain's Heathrow airport, where only two U.S. carriers, American Airlines and UAL Corp's United Airlines (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - News), can fly.
