US cargo airlines challenge legacy carriers over 'threat to Open Skies'

US CARGO airlines have again voiced support for Gulf carriers in the face of a concerted effort by US legacy operators to disrupt the Open Skies agreement, reports London's Loadstar.

Lobbying as US Airlines for Open Skies (USAOS), Atlas Air, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao to express their support.



'The Open Skies policy is unquestionably one of the most successful economic and diplomatic initiatives in American history,' said the group.



'Coupled with domestic airline deregulation, it has greatly expanded access, stimulating extraordinary economic growth in the process; it has produced record profits for both passenger and cargo; and it has created jobs for American workers at home and abroad,' said the letter from FedEx's Fred Smith and Atlas Air's Bill Flynn.



Last week, Qatar Airways was forced to respond to what it called 'false accusations' over its shareholding in Air Italy: suggestions that its 49 per cent stake in the carrier was not compliant with the US-Qatar Open Skies agreement.



Said Qatar: 'The 'Big 3' US carriers have consistently demonstrated their hostility to new entrants into the US-Europe market. Their attacks on Air Italy, based on the identity of its minority shareholder, are just another manifestation of this hostility.'


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