Believe it or not the airline industry will implement
a policy
this spring that will actually be good for customers
OPEN
SKIES
by J. Michael Nemeth
The Open Skies Policy is an agreement
that was reached in April 2007 between the United States
and the European Union that will open up the transatlantic
airways to increased competition that should translate
to lower, competitive fares. The treaty, scheduled to
go into effect March 30, 2008, allows any European or
U.S. airline to fly between any airport in Europe and
any airport in the United States. Heretofore, a complex
labyrinth of bureaucratic restrictions has prevented
airline companies from freely flying chosen routes.
Instead, companies are wedged into “slots”
that may or may not represent the best routes for their
customers.
There are open skies policies in effect
all around the world, essentially in place when one
nation grants permission to another to fly over their
airspace. India opened their skies to international
cargo flights a few years ago. The United States has
a reciprocal policy with Canada, and Singapore and China
have arrived at mutually beneficial agreements.
The policy that is going to rock the
world of the average American traveler, however, is
the most recent agreement between the United States
and Europe. Once we add the 27 EU member states, there
will be almost 90 countries around the world participating
as Open Skies partners.
At present, an airline company can’t
simply decide, “Hey, maybe it would be fun to start
flying from Chicago to Madrid. I bet our customers would
like to go there.” There are miles and miles of
red tape and negotiations to be navigated before you’ll
be able to buckle your seatbelt in the Windy City and
jet off to the Spanish capital on just any airline.
The limitations are even more restrictive if you want
to continue on to another European destination, say
Budapest, with the same airline. Current restrictions
prohibit a North American provider to fly intra-Europe
routes between European cities, and similarly, European
carriers cannot operate flights from a country not their
own to the United States. For instance, Hungary’s
Malev Airlines cannot fly passengers to the United States
on planes originating anywhere outside Hungary. One
thing that won’t change is that foreign carriers
will still be kept from flying between U.S. cities (this
is called cabotage). Under the new agreement, you still
will not be able to fly British Airways or any other
foreign airline from Boston to San Francisco.
The current system does allow passengers
to get around some of the roadblocks with a complex
system of codeshare flights and alliance partners to
link to their final destination. The three big alliances
are: OneWorld Alliance (www.oneworld.com
which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay
Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Malev, Qantas, and
Royal Jordanian); Star Alliance (www.staralliance.com
which includes Air Canada, Lufthansa, Thai Airways,
Air New Zealand, SAS, United, ANA, Singapore Airlines,
US Airways,
Asiana Airlines, South African Airways,
Austrian Airlines, Spanair, BMI, SWISS, LOT, and TAP
Air Portugal); and SkyTeam (www.skyteam.com
which includes Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, KLM,
Alitalia, China Southern, Continental Airlines, Czech
Airlines, Delta, Korean Air, and NWA).
Under the new agreement, you might be
able to hop onboard a flight in Los Angeles that flies
direct to Orly Airport in Paris, then continue on to
your final destination of Athens so you can enjoy your
vacation in Greece without changing planes.
The European Union’s ambassador
to the United States, John Bruton, wrote, “It sounds
so logical that it might surprise my fellow passengers
to hear that this is not how things currently work.
Instead, we have a set of old, restrictive treaties
between individual European countries and the United
States that were written in a different protectionist
era. These treaties put severe limits on service across
the Atlantic.”
One of the most dramatic arenas in which
this shift will be played out—the coliseum of competition
for airlines—is Heathrow Airport in London. For
years, Heathrow has been one of the most desirable destinations
for transatlantic airlines as it is large, close to
London’s city center, and the world’s leading
international airport for connectivity to other destinations.
Until now, former airline agreements have restricted
transatlantic flights between Heathrow and the cities
of the United States to only four carriers in the world,
two originating in England, and two in the U.S. To fly
from America to Heathrow and back, your only choices
have been British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United,
and American Airlines. Other carriers could get you
into Gatwick or Stanstead, but Heathrow was a closed
network.
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