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Silverjet urges Government to support ‘open skies plus’
Silverjet CEO Lawrence Hunt has written a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport urging a change on open skies policy.
In it, he urges the Government to support the proposed comprehensive “open skies plus” agreement between the European Union and the US by this spring at the latest.
“It is beyond me why, over three years after negotiations began, the various government bodies have been unable to implement open skies sooner,” he says.
“We are on the threshold of achieving such a landmark agreement, one that goes significantly beyond the bilateral open skies model of the past.
“While I appreciate the importance of making sure that the agreement provides meaningful and balanced benefits to all parties, it is also important to seize the moment and not to sacrifice the good for the perfect.”
Hunt said he believes the current bilateral and prehistoric system of slot allocation “distorts the market and protects the incumbent legacy airlines like no other industry”.
“It is quite astonishing that in this century, our Government not only allows but seems to encourage such a protectionist policy. Some have suggested that there is more behind the motivation for the support of this policy than meets the eye, although I would not wish to speculate what such motivation might be,” the letter continues.
“It is time to open up the London marketplace as other countries have done at their hub gateways. As a new entrant, we are not able to compete fairly with the larger entrenched incumbents, who use their grandfather rights and fortress protections at Heathrow and Gatwick to block out competition and distort the market.
“Moreover, BAA makes disproportionate profits from the inferior and shoddy service it provides (witness recent chaos at airports and its growing revenues and profits).”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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