Last month, pinch-hitting for Jim Geraghty in the Morning Jolt (to which you really must subscribe), I wrote about the complaint by the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies that three Arab regimes are pumping billions of dollars into subsidizing the U.S. operations of their state-operated airlines — Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways — and thereby 1) violating international “Open Skies” agreements, 2) undercutting U.S. carriers, and 3) putting at risk over a million U.S. jobs. So the Partnership claims, and there seems to be ample substantiation to the charges.
Now that I have become some airline expert (a notch above my daily complaints about Metro North train commuting), I . . . get sent stuff about this issue. I think the “stuff” I just got is worth sharing. Opposing the Partnership’s efforts, seemingly on behalf of the Emirates et al, is the U.S. Travel Association. That’s a strange name for an outfit promoting Middle Eastern interests. Including, specifically, for Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways.
Relevant facts: 1) Those two are Association’s members, 2) There are no other airlines which are Association members, 3) A twist on No. 2, there are no American airlines that are members, and 4) Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways are major funders of the Association.
All’s fair in love and war and lobbying, as we learned from Thank You for Smoking. But there are rules, especially if one represents foreign interests: One must be registered as a foreign agent. That’s the law (laws in fact: the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Lobbying Disclosure Act). It appears, so I am quite reliably informed, that in its zeal to represent the American travel industry Etihad and Emirates, U.S. Travel had done so without complying with FARA or LDA. But heck, maybe its compliant under UAE’s laws! Anyway, that’s serious stuff — I wonder what the feds will do. Stay tuned, because I find this battle to muck around with American air travel to be of increasing interest.