Foreign Ownership of U.S. Airlines & Ports Deemed Troubling

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) on February 8, 2005, presented its decision before the U.S. House of Representatives House Aviation Sub-Committee, to change a rule which would clear the way for foreign corporations to own and control U.S. airlines. But members of the House Aviation Sub-Committee were all in agreement that the DOT may lack the legal authority to unilaterally make such a change. Yet it does not begin to reveal all of the implications of such a historic shift in policy in bypassing the U.S. Congress in order to do so.

Trade negotiations with the European Union to loosen up regulations in ownership of U.S. airlines is seen as a tradeoff by the DOT in order for the U.S. to gain greater access to landing at London