The people who work in the U.S. aviation industry have a simple request of the U.S. government: enforce existing aviation trade agreements, known as Open Skies.
The letter from U.S. Travel Association to the U.S. government suggests instead that the U.S. government should ignore our own laws and instead set the dangerous precedent of allowing foreign countries to violate our trade agreements. This is terrible public policy, and worse, it jeopardizes U.S. jobs to benefit foreign interests.
With more than $42 billion in subsidies from their home nations, three Gulf airlines have distorted the international aviation marketplace and put U.S. jobs and our economy at risk. Americans are pushing back; saying “no,” enforce Open Skies agreements as they were intended. The U.S. Travel Association, which is clearly benefiting financially from the Gulf subsidies, is disingenuous in its letter opposing Open Skies enforcement. We must demand better. American workers deserve better. American worker deserve fair competition and fair skies.