FRANCE SAYS THAT it will "...react accordingly" to the US rejection of its application for an increase of 24% in the number of flights to North America during the summer season.
One Paris source says that the USA is "flexing its muscles" to push France towards an open-skies bilateral agreement such as it has already agreed with eight other European countries. It also considers excessive the French request for what would amount to an extra 500 flights, or 190,000 passengers, during the April-October season.
The French and US transport ministers were due to meet on 25 March in an attempt to re-open bilateral negotiations, which have been stalled since France rejected the existing agreement in 1992.
Meanwhile, France has said that it will reverse its approval given in February of the US request for extra flights, threatening an equivalent cancellation of 190,000 seats. French civil aviation authority the Direction G,n,rale de A,ronautique Civile says that the move is "entirely reasonable", given the US action which, it says, came "totally without warning".
European transport commissioner, Neil Kinnock has again called for the European Commission, to be given a mandate to negotiate air transport agreements between the USA and Europe, citing the Franco-US argument, as demonstrating the need for a powerful single negotiating bloc, with more political muscle than could be wielded by any single country. "It is the only practical way to enhance the interests of European carriers," he told the European Aviation Club on 21 March.
Source: Flight International
