more EU/UA talks - will anything change?

[no, no, no]

Talks planned between the US and EU on the air services agreement starting in Brussels from October 17th.

Can anyone see these talks being any different from the last - or do you at last think that they may allow some small changes to be made as a start - maybe allow others to fly to LHR (without opening up slots which I guess would only help bmi), and maybe allow cargo carriers to start fifth freedom flights in Europe?

They must know that progress has to be made at some point!!!

What do others think?

[akerosid]

I think there is a recognition now, much more than last time, that things need to change; the fact that fuel is very much more expensive and that US carriers are anxious to expand European (as well as other long haul services) will put pressure on the US side; the fact that the EU has dropped its unachievable demand for cabotage will also help. Another plus is the fact that the UK currently has the EU presidency and since this is one of the issues which scuppered talks last time, I think the recent exploratory talks (which preceded this new round) would have "touched" on that very much.

There seems to be optimism that (at least) a first stage can be agreed by Christmas.

My one concern, from an Irish perspective, is that the Irish govt will be trying to argue some kind of phased approach to the withdrawal of the SNN stopover. How far they're willing to go on that I don't know, although I think that if their stance were to scupper talks, there would be very serious consequences.

[The Royal Family]

No,no,no you may think it would help bmi, but to fly routes you need aircraft and at the moment we cannot even find a tatty 767 for Manchester let alone some nice new 330's :mad: