Open Skies--or just ajar? Bruce Hales-Dutton reports on the pros and cons of the new transatlantic Open Skies agreement.

Airports International, August, 2007 by Hales-Dutton, Bruce

It was a measure of the importance attached to the Open Skies accord reached with the European Union that the US Government chose the Treaty Room at the White House to set the seal on what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called "an extraordinary achievement". The Bretton Woods Treaty, which established the International Monetary Fund, had been signed there, as was the Charter of the United Nations.

The long-awaited EU-US agreement was, said Dr Rice, "pro-growth, pro-competition and pro-consumer" because it would mean that "every US carrier can fly to every city in the European Union and every EU carrier can fly to every city in the United States".

Jacques Barrot, European Commission vice-president responsible for transport, called the deal a "big...

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