Originally Posted by
Heathrow Harry
no-one NEEDS a national airline any more - there are dozens of airlines waiting to serve any route that has enough yield
Bilateral Air Service agreements still set out who can serve those routes. A Canadian airline cannot fly France-USA without a connection in Canada. A US airline cannot fly France-Canada without a connection in the US, nor can they fly an internal EU sector without the flight continuing to the US.
Swiss and Austrian have continued challenges with Russia about their flights. The Russians do not believe that they are substantially owned and effectively controlled by nationals of their countries. (The respective ASAs require this)
The CEO, senior management and most board members of US airlines must be US citizens.
We are a long way from any airline flying any route it can make money at.