Open skies – for now

There’s been a lot of speculation over the new Open Skies agreement between the US and Europe, but the consensus seems to be that airfares will initially go down as carriers begin to compete on other carriers’ home turf.

I suspect it will ultimately hasten the decline of those smaller national carriers, like Alitalia, who have already been hurting badly under the existing scheme. As CNN put it back in 2007:

Airlines with the strongest brands and best quality products are likely to lure passengers away from European rivals by launching flights from other major European cities.

Whether that consolidation increases fares over the long term remains to be seen.

image from Wikimedia Commons.