Beaver Driver
"The US should not open their borders to cabatoge unless and until Southwest or Jetblue is allowed to fly point to point in France, or point to point in Italy, or point to point in the UK."
The whole point of an open skies agreement is just that - a US or EU airline could fly between any city pair in the EU, the US or EU to US. Southwest could set up a route network in England, and Easyjet a network based in say, Florida. In practice I think what is being considered is more on the lines of code share and cross ownership.
"The EU is NOT a sovereign nation. Flying between France and England is no different than flying between Montreal and Minneapolis. It is a different set of rules, freedoms, and treaties when you fly country to country."
That is no longer totally correct. There are common airworthiness standards, licencing etc. More importantly the individual states of the EU have agreed a common policy on cabotage.
Whilst individual airlines may see benefits to an open skies agreement the main driver for the EU will be the consumer - will there be cheaper and better air services?
How would this affect industry staff? A more competitive environment would obviously produce changes. However it worth pointing out that salaries in Easyjet, Southwest etc are not knwn for being particularly low.