Shea Byom

Date of Award

January 2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Aviation

First Advisor

Brandon Wild

Abstract

For years Delta, American, and United airlines have cited unfair practices by Qatar,United Arab Emirates, and Etihad airways. The main problem, they argued, was the unfair business practices, especially the government subsidies provided to these Gulf carriers that they believed harmed competition, and put at risk millions of U.S. jobs supported by tourism and travel (Al-Sayeh, 2014). Delta, American, and United airlines believed that the Gulf carriers were in direct violation of their Open Skies agreement, which provides open competition between all airlines. “Fair and open” eliminates government interference in commercial decisions of air carriers about routes, capacity, and pricing (Open and Fair Skies, 2019). If the Open Skies agreement was abandoned by the Gulf countries, many American jobs would be in jeopardy because of route closures that Delta, American, and United airlines would have to part in. In May 2018 the Trump administration came to an agreement with Qatar and United Arab Emirates that purports to protect American jobs and U.S. trade deals against unfair foreign practices (Holland, 2019). This agreement came to fruition because of the constant plea of Delta, American, and United airlines for many years that something must be done in order to protect U.S. job security in the commercial aviation business.

Through comparative statistical analysis, this study reveals the correlation betweeninternational travel on U.S. routes and how tourism provided on those routes relates directly to American jobs. It explains how international visitors contributed to U.S. jobs through their travel and why it is vital for the Open Skies Agreement to be followed.

The study examines the Delta, American, and United airlines unfair practices claims, andthe resulting U.S. government’s Open Skies Agreement that was implemented. The researcher investigates data variables collected from the U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Statistics Report for the 2014-2016 years (transportation.gov, 2018), including passenger travel for Delta, American, and United airlines’ U.S. international routes. The data was compared to research collected from the four busiest European airports to explain how international visitors contributed to U.S. jobs through their travel and why it is vital for the Open Skies Agreement to be followed.

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