Open & Fair Skies Group Looks Forward to Briefing President-Elect Trump

The Partnership Open & Fair Skies which represents airlines and unions protesting what they categorise as an unfair competitive advantage of the Big 3 Middle East carriers, stemming from government subsidies, has welcomed the opportunity to brief President-Elect Donald Trump on their agenda.

The Partnership for Open & Fair Skies coalition includes American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, along with the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, the Southwest Airline Pilots’ Association, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Communications Workers of America, and the Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The group has detailed what it alleges are illegal subsidies by their governments which give Middle East carriers an unfair competitive advantage in the U.S. market it has lobbied  the U.S. government to address what it calculates as $50 billion in subsidies which the Gulf carriers have received from their government-sponsors, the UAE and Qatar.

The Partnership hopes the U.S. Government will take action to restrict the growth of the Middle East carriers in the U.S. market.

In a published statement the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies writes:

“We look forward to briefing President-elect Donald Trump and his new administration on the massive, unfair subsidies that the UAE and Qatar give to their state-owned Gulf carriers,” said Jill Zuckman, chief spokesperson for the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies. “The Gulf carrier subsidies threaten the jobs of 300,000 U.S. aviation workers and the American aviation industry as a whole, and we are optimistic that the Trump administration will stand up to the UAE and Qatar, enforce our trade agreements and fight for American jobs.”