I’m back to my theme of unintended consequences. While the Transportation Department has been approving airline alliances and pursuing a U.S.-E.U. Open Skies agreement, the airlines have been figuring out ways to game the system. Now a pilot union that once supported all these efforts has awakened to a new reality they don’t like.
An unintended consequence of the airline open skies agreement combined with alliance agreements between the United States and the European Union is the birth of joint transatlantic ventures that will test both U.S. and E.U. regulations and regulators.
It looks like the Continental executives took a hard look at the marriage plans between Delta and Northwest and decided that life as the third man out could get ugly. Just like the days on the playground, they decided to find someone else to play with.