In April of 2007 the United States and the European Union ratified an agreement that would liberalize American and European air rights for air carriers. Effective, Sunday March 30th, 2008, European and American air carriers can fly anywhere they want between European Union countries as well as Switzerland, and the United States. European carriers are still not able to offer services inside the US for domestic travel, but may fly internationally between any point they choose.
The initial agreement is thought to be more advantageous to to American carriers because the Open Skies treaty does allow US carriers to offer services between EU countries. For the Americans, the most coveted aspect of the agreement is the ability to land at London-Heathrow airport. Starting Sunday a number of carriers are launching new services to land at the airport most central to London. Delta will operate a new flight from Atlanta and from New York JFK, Continental will launch flights from their hubs in Houston and Newark, while Northwest will have new flights from Seattle, Minneapolis/St.Paul and Detroit. Not to be left out, US Airways will fly from Philadelphia to LHR.
London-Heathrow is still dominated by British Airways , who holds approximately 40% of the landing rights slots. BA will open new flights from a variety of European cities to New York starting this summer. With the Euro trading so favorably against the US dollar, I think a regular European invasion will occur this summer in the US. Lots of seats and lots of buying power will make for some nice vacations in America. British Airways has even gone so far as to start a new airline brand called "Open Skies", which will fly from New York to Brussels and Paris starting in June, 2008. Virgin Atlantic originally planned to expand its flight roster this summer, but may delay until 2009 or 2010 now.
Round Two
The Open Skies agreement that was signed in 2007 was only part of a continuing dialog between the European Union and the United States. The agreement calls for further discussion to take place within 60 days of the implementation of phase 1. Targeted for May or June, negotiators will continue talks that may eventually liberalize issues such as European carrier ability to offer domestic services in the US as well as foreign ownership of US air carriers. Both of these are protected by US law now. Government negotiators on both sides hope that increased competition and flight availability will increase competition and eventually lower fares. Those issues remain to be seen based on economic indicators as well as competition.
The Open Skies agreement also has the intent of creating a framework for harmonizing airport security issues, safety and the environment.
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