Open Skies

The EU has ordered all member states to tear up existing bilateral open skies agreements.

This is because these agreements contravene EU law.

All EU companies (in all areas of business) can operate in any EU member country. However the open skies agreements defy this. They usually specify that only carriers from the home country may operate on routes to the partner country, eg:

KLM can fly AMS-JFK, but BA or LH cannot.

The “biggie” involving transatlantic flights ex-LHR seems to be the target. Under EU law, the likes of AF or IB can operate these flights, but the current US-UK agreement restricts it to BA and VS.

Any comment?