FedEx and Atlas team up for alliance against Big 3 protectionist stance

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It’s hard to see how the big three US airlines are going to get their way on a newly restricted open skies deal with the Gulf. So many companies and organisations are backing open skies. A new airline grouping of FedEx, Atlas Air, Hawaiian and JetBlue has formed to protest the big three’s lobbying. Cargo airlines in particular have a lot to lose from any change to the deal, and point out that they have big operations in the Gulf – particularly for the US military. Perhaps this effort will lead to cargo airlines the world over protesting that they should have different traffic rights to the passenger carriers anyway.
The Big 3 have, however, dismissed the efforts of the ‘US Airlines for Open Skies’ – (USAOS), calling it a “meaningless coalition without a cause”.