EU, U.S. to Open New Stage of “Open Skies” Talks

The European Union and the United States will kick off talks on further liberalization of transatlantic air traffic on May 15, the EU’s senior transport official said on Friday.

The first phase of the “open skies” agreement comes into force on Sunday and allows carriers to access any U.S. city from any point in the EU, and vice versa.

European airlines have complained this deal unfairly favors U.S. rivals and EU states have threatened to scrap it if Washington does not agree by 2010 to a second phase allowing foreign airlines to buy more voting rights in U.S. carriers and permitting them to run domestic U.S. services.

The EU expects the number of transatlantic flights to increase by 8 percent for the summer season this year thanks to the deal, with new flights including 16 additional flights per day from London Heathrow.

Up until now, 16 EU states including Germany and the Netherlands had bilateral open skies deals with the United States, but could only fly from their home country.

For five further countries including Britain, there were restrictions on the number of flights or airlines. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania had no deal at all.