All stories about "Open Skies"

Now that the Open Skies agreement has been in effect for a week, international travelers are enjoying drastically slashed airfares, huge increases in route options, more variety in carrier choice, better customer service from a range of competing airlines, and ... oh forget it, of course I'm joking. In fact, Open Skies -- which allows European carriers to fly to and from the US and any European city, rather than only the carrier's home country -- hasn't substantively affected prices because of soaring (har!) fuel costs. But there are so many more planes flying around, surely volume will exceed demand and depress prices? Supposedly, London's Heathrow Airport alone is already seeing an additional 100 trans-Atlantic flights per week. Barring discovery of a giant oil reserve in Arkansas or Belgium, fuel prices won't seasonably drop until fall 2008, if then. Fuel surcharges will compensate for most volume savings. And don't forget that airlines knew exactly how this would play out, and they planned it quite carefully to avoid long-term price reductions. They will most certainly screw you. And by "they," I mean Europe, and by "you," I mean everyone.

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On March 30th the EU-US Open Skies Agreement comes into full effect, completely changing the face of cross-Atlantic air travel. Previously, European Union carriers could only operate nonstops from their home country, but with the Open Skies Agreement, the international airline playing field finally gets a bit more level. (By 2010 EU countries may be able to own and operate U.S. airlines, but that's a whole other story.)

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