"Open Skies" airline deals fair play or foul?
The dogfight over America's "Open Skies" agreements is spreading out across several different fronts as the big U.S. air carriers battle against what they see as unfair practices by foreign competitors.
At the same time, groups representing air travelers are criticizing what they claim are ongoing attempts by the U.S. airlines to further monopolize America's air routes.
Some background: The U.S. State Department says America's Open Skies policy is an important part of the airline industry's globalization and has helped expand international passenger and cargo flights into and out of the U.S. by "promoting increased travel and trade, enhancing productivity, and spurring high-quality job opportunities and economic growth."
Washington has over 100 Open Skies agreements with other nations. But some big U.S. airlines say their overseas competitors aren't playing fair.
In late April, more than 250 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to top State Department and Transportation Department officials, calling on the Obama administration to investigate what they said was over $40 billion in concealed and unfair subsidies given to several Persian Gulf nation airlines by their respective governments.
"Every lost or foregone international round-trip by U.S. carriers because of this subsidized competition equals a net loss of hundreds of American jobs," the letter said.
The U.S. airlines have also joined the fray. Earlier this month, dozens of Delta Air Lines (DAL) employees took part in what the company calls "fly-ins." According to the airline, those Delta workers visited congressional offices in Washington and urged lawmakers to "press the case that Gulf carriers are benefiting from an unfair playing field at the expense of Delta and other U.S. airlines."
But groups like the Business Travel Coalition counter that the "Big Three" U.S. airlines -- Delta, American (AAL) and United (UAL) -- control most U.S. air routes and are trying to protect that turf against competition, despite growing air traveler frustration with those carriers and accusations that the U.S. industry is operating what is "increasingly looking like an uncompetitive oligopoly."
And a new survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults, conducted for the OpenSkies.travel organization, found 89 percent of Americans who have traveled outside of the U.S. by air say they support the government's Open Skies policies. The survey also reported that two-thirds agreed that the U.S. government should not bow to demands that foreign airline expansion into the U.S. markets be halted.
"These results should be a wake-up call for the U.S. Departments of Transportation, State and Commerce," Kevin Mitchell, OpenSkies.travel and Business Travel Coalition founder, said in a press statement.
"Consumers, as the most important aviation policy stakeholder," he continued, "realize the significant benefits to them and their communities from our Open Skies policy and see straight through the U.S. airlines' allegations of unfair Gulf carrier competition as nothing more than blatant commercial protectionism."