…As Globalization Hits Home

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would change the law that governs foreign ownership and control of U.S. airlines, and the proposal has caused an uproar. Continental Airlines called the proposal “a blatant attempt to circumvent the law that DOT has been unable to convince Congress to change.” The DOT proposal is intended “to satisfy the European Union that its citizens will be allowed to control U.S. airlines,” Continental said in a news release. ALPA’s president, Capt. Duane Woerth, agreed, and added that members of Congress are “very unhappy with the administration’s jurisdictional grab.” Woerth also said that “U.S. airlines themselves are all over the map on whether they support this — or oppose this — or even understand it.”