A new poll commissioned by the US Airlines for Open Skies Coalition reveals strong support for upholding the country’s current open skies agreement.
Conducted by Morning Consult, the survey of 2,200 American adults shows that the majority of respondents believe that the US government should maintain its current policy because they favour open skies agreements.
Seventy percent of respondents picked protecting travellers, workers, and exporters from unfair policies over protecting billion-dollar US corporations from foreign competition.
US airlines “cannot pull the wool over the eyes of Americans when it comes to the benefits of Open Skies agreements,” said Andrea Christianson, spokesperson for US Airlines for Opens Skies.
“Congress established a process to address subsidy concerns within the Department of Transportation, and it’s good to see Americans agree the legacy carriers should use this process before spending millions of dollars lobbying the president and Congress to protect them from competition. Delta, United, and American airlines should welcome the opportunity to have their claims independently reviewed by the appropriate body,” she added.
A third of Americans were of the opinion that US airlines Delta, United, and American would be better off putting $3 million toward their services than in paying for expenses incurred while lobbying for policy changes.
The US Airlines for Open Skies coalition (USAOS) consists of four US passenger and cargo carriers: Atlas Air Worldwide, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, and JetBlue Airways.
In response, Jill Zuckman, chief spokesperson for the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies (respresenting Delta, United, and American airlines) said, “Rather than asking Americans misleading questions about an archaic and ineffective process, this group should instead ask themselves why they want to put 1.2 million Americans out of work.”
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