U.S. Non-Legacy Airlines Oppose Complaint About Gulf Carriers

CEOs of Hawaiian Airlines, FedEx Express, JetBlue and Atlas Air Urge Transportation and State Department heads to reject efforts to curb Open Skies

By Gregory Polek • Senior Editor

February 7, 2017

Four U.S. airlines are resisting calls by three other American carriers for the new U.S. administration to take up their repeated complaints about allegedly unfair subsidies for state-owned airlines in the Gulf region. The chief executives of Hawaiian Airlines, FedEx Express, JetBlue Airways and Atlas Air have urged U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to reject appeals by the country’s big three legacy airlines to freeze Open Skies pacts with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. A joint letter dated February 7, sent by Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley, Atlas Air CEO William Flynn, FedEx Express CEO David Bronczek and JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes under the letterhead of a group called the U.S. Airlines for Open Skies (USAOS), charges United, Delta and American Airlines with trying to reduce competition into what the group calls “an already concentrated U.S. airline market.”

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