Open Skies

Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record

Nearly 850 airline passengers for 2014! To be exact, 848.1 million passengers (obviously some repeaters!) flew on domestic airlines last year, or on foreign airline flights to and from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The…

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Emirates adds Orlando; more fuel on Open Skies fire?

Emirates, the largest of the Gulf carriers, has announced it will start a daily flight between Dubai and Orlando, starting September 1, using a B777.   The expansion comes at a time U.S. carriers are lobbying hard for limits on expansion into the…

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Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees

It’s hard for a traveler to tell what’s going on sometimes in the pot-calling-the-kettle-black wars of the air travel industry. We’ve covered elsewhere the dispute between the legacy airlines and the Gulf carriers over subsidies and “Open Skies.”…

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Europe Takes Issue with Gulf Carriers, too

First, the American legacy carriers (American, Delta and United) had a press conference on March 5, stating   Emirates, Qatar and Etihad are violating the fair-play terms of their nations’ “Open Skies” agreements with the U.S. by receiving over $40 billion in government subsidies in the past 10 years.

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Open Skies? Fair Skies? Gulf competition stirs debate

U.S. airlines, which have usually pushed for “open skies” agreements that have let them expand into new markets previously closed except to the local domestic carriers, are now asking the Federal government to slow down, and perhaps renegotiate some of them.

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Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record

Nearly 850 airline passengers for 2014! To be exact, 848.1 million passengers (obviously some repeaters!) flew on domestic airlines last year, or on foreign airline flights to and from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The…

Read More

Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees

It’s hard for a traveler to tell what’s going on sometimes in the pot-calling-the-kettle-black wars of the air travel industry. We’ve covered elsewhere the dispute between the legacy airlines and the Gulf carriers over subsidies and “Open Skies.”…

Read More

Europe Takes Issue with Gulf Carriers, too

First, the American legacy carriers (American, Delta and United) had a press conference on March 5, stating   Emirates, Qatar and Etihad are violating the fair-play terms of their nations’ “Open Skies” agreements with the U.S. by receiving over $40 billion in government subsidies in the past 10 years.

Read More