08:33 28 March 2008Labour relations Route and Network Planning Planning People Moves Airport People moves Amenities Mergers and Acquisitions Incidents Bases and hubs Light aircraft Routes Airline Environment
<P>Management at <A href="http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/whereintheworld/index.jsp">Virgin Atlantic Airways </A>believes failure by negotiators to reach terms on the lifting of foreign ownership restrictions of US airlines will hurt US carriers far more than their European counterparts.</P> <P>A stipulation of the open skies deal brokered by the <A href="http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s13004.htm">European Union (EU)</A> and the USA – which takes effect this month - is that individual EU states retain their right to withdraw newly-granted landing rights if a second phase deal that addresses ownership restrictions is not reached by 2010.</P> <P>Virgin Atlantic director of external affairs and route development Barry Humphreys told <A href="http://www.rati.com">Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), flightglobal.com's sister premium news source</A> at the <A href="http://phoenix.gov/skyharborairport/about/symposium.html">Phoenix Sky Harbor International