European Union and US negotiators will resume talks this week to try to reach a compromise on a stalled deal to deregulate transatlantic air routes.
The Irish government has threatened to break ranks and negotiate its own open-skies agreement with Washington. Irish transport minister Martin Cullen said: “The EU-US discussions are going nowhere.”
SilverJet chief excutive Lawrence Hunt has written to UK transport secretary Douglas Alexander to urge the Government to back a partial deal on open skies between the EU and US.
The UK Government has opposed such a deal because it would reduce British Airways’ dominance at Heathrow without conceding the right for European airlines to take significant stakes in US carriers.
The basis of a deal involving the relaxation of US foreign-ownership restrictions was agreed in 2005, but Washington dropped attempts to liberalise the restrictions last year.
Hunt described the foreign ownership rules as a “a red herring” and said: “This negotiating position has been construed as a mask to delay deregulation, in order to protect BA’s and other European carriers’ most profitable routes.”
He said: “It is time to open up the London marketplace. Currently, SilverJet is unable to operate from Heathrow, Gatwick or any mainland European airport to any north Atlantic destination.”