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Truss wants “open skies”
Federal Transport Minister Warren Truss has stated that Australia would welcome an “open skies” agreement with the US.
In an interview with Melbourne’s Age newspaper, Mt Truss said “if (the US Government) are interested in a genuinely open-skies agreement with Australia, then we certainly are,” Mr Truss said.
He warned that Australia would be “very disappointed” if the US failed to allow Jetstar and Virgin more access to the US market.
The US needed to open its market to Australian carriers and it would be “a setback in our relationship with the United States if this were to be refused”, he said.
Mr Truss also signalled that Canberra might review its controversial decision to deny Singapore Airlines access to the Pacific route to the US if America refused to allow Jetstar or Virgin additional landing rights.
“We’ve always indicated that the whole thing will remain under constant review. I said that in January,” he said. He defended himself against recent criticism that the Government was not doing enough to expand competition in the aviation market.
“I think our current policy allows for very substantial competition in the marketplace,” he said.
“We have a genuine commitment to open skies, which has been demonstrated in a number of agreements … but we expect there to be something in this for Australia as well.
“We are not going to give away access rights unless something reasonable is offered to us in return.”
Graham Muldoon
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