by Mike Hall, Mar 23, 2007

The Bush administration this week gave the green light for Virgin America—the airline owned in part by British billionaire Richard Branson and his Virgin Group—to begin domestic U.S. flights. Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says the move is an attempt to “silence” Branson’s vocal opposition to the Bush administration’s efforts to open up the lucrative trans-Atlantic market to all European airlines as part of a so-called Open Skies agreement.

This is a blatant quid pro quo that this administration hopes will silence one of the agreement’s most prominent critics and secure a ratified agreement with the EU [European Union]. It also appears to us that the Bush administration is using the Virgin America application to demonstrate its willingness to bend ownership and control limitations as it promises to do in the tentative U.S.-EU agreement.

The Open Skies agreement the Bush administration is pushing has received approval from the EU Thursday. While the agreement promises to expand trans-Atlantic flights, it also would allow foreign interests to have greater ownership and control of U.S. airlines. The agreement is a dangerous step toward enabling foreign investors to control the operations of U.S. Airlines, says TTD.

Last year, Congress rejected Bush administration attempts to allow foreign control of U.S. airlines. In December, the Bush administration announced it would halt its move to change the rules that govern foreign ownership of U.S. airlines. But the Open Skies deal and Virgin America agreement let foreign interests board through the rear entrance. Says Patricia Friend, president of the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA):

This ruling is hypocritical and nothing but a trade off to buy European approval of the U.S.-EU treaty. The Department of Transportation is completely ignoring their own well-established rules that have protected the U.S. aviation industry and its employees for years. This decision…is just one more bad trade deal at the expense of American workers….Once the market is open to foreign competition and foreign-controlled airlines begin to take off in the U.S., their success will come on the backs of current airlines and employees.

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