U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Policy Tori Barnes issued the following statement on today's White House meeting with the heads of several major U.S. airlines, the topic of which was reportedly Open Skies aviation agreements:
"We have closely scrutinized Open Skies agreements and we simply do not agree that they are doing any harm to American businesses—on the contrary, our research shows immense benefits to the U.S. economy, jobs base and exports, and considerable harm if Open Skies is tampered with. Apart from the Big Three, the entirety of the U.S. travel and tourism industry—including the rest of the aviation sector—strongly supports keeping Open Skies intact."
