I don't think that the government is selling out, ...

2008-02-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

I don't think that the government is selling out, though it'd be nice to have true Open Skies instead of this "Ajar Skies" game.

The real problem is that this was negotiated theoretically as a bilateral, but it actually does very, very, very little to benefit the US carriers right now, as they're all pretty much in shambles thanks to a weak dollar and high fuel prices, plus none of them have any spare aircraft lying around to run these flights (which require ~1.5 planes to do a daily run.

As for the existing US-based carriers' rights, most of those are ex-HNL, I believe, so they don't help quite as much.

" Instead the agreement has given both Qantas and ...

2008-02-16T06:52:00.000-08:00

" Instead the agreement has given both Qantas and Virgin Blue the license to make even more money."

How much money? A couple of months out business class from LA to Sydney is 19,000 dollars. For the same dates business class from Sydney to London, nearly twice the distance, is about 9,000 dollars.

The only difference is the competition that Qantas have on the latter route. As an Aussie I really resent my government allowing me to be shafted like this to protect a few Qantas shareholders and employees.

Comments on Musings of The Global Traveller: Australia-US open skies agreement

I don't think that the government is selling out, ...

" Instead the agreement has given both Qantas and ...