Open Skies talks hit stalemate

These are uncertain times for international aviation as there are only tentative signs of an end to the global recession.

Nowhere is the situation more fraught than in Washington, where negotiations for the second stage of the 2007 Open Skies agreement between the EU and the US appear to have run into the buffers.

If the EU ambassador to the US, John Bruton, is to be believed, both stage one of the Open Skies deal and the EU/US air safety agreement may now be under threat.

Similarly bleak forebodings have been expressed by European airlines. "If the second stage agreement does not materialise, then there are clawback provisions from the first stage agreement so that individual states may be able to withdraw any privileges that they granted, and the main one of these involves the UK," says David Henderson, information manager at the Association of European Airlines.

British Airways and Virgin had been "vocal about using this if the Americans don't budge on the second stage", he remarks, adding that the situation could lead to revoking widened Heathrow access for US carriers.

Some cynics will say that US airlines got what they wanted two years ago in stage one of Open Skies – namely Heathrow access – and simply were not that interested in stage two. For their part, many US commentators maintain that the EU is being unrealistic in asking for unrestricted access and ownership.

In the last round of talks, at the end of June, the US team called for full liberalisation of cargo flights, but Henderson says the EU delegation rejected this as "not in the mainstream and not part of what the EU is pushing for".