US: White House confirms UAE fifth freedom assurance, not ‘routes freeze’

In its third version this week of what was agreed between the US and the United Arab Emirates on their Open Skies aviation deal, the White House now says there is an “understanding” that UAE airlines have “no current plans” to add fifth freedom flights, but makes no mention of a routes freeze. The latest statement appears to clarify remarks by White House assistant to the President and trade council director Peter Navarro to aviation industry stakeholders during a telephone briefing May 14 in which he spoke of a routes freeze. “There will be no additional routes into the United States until further notice,” Navarro said during that brief. “What we expect moving forward is transparency, full accounting, stopping of subsidies and a freeze on routes until further notice. So, there it is. And that’s strictly on the passenger side.” The Washington DC-based lobbying organization, Partnership for Fair & Open Skies, which was hired by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US airline unions to fight Gulf carrier expansion in the US, issued a release touting Navarro’s statements. It also posted a transcript of Navarro’s remarks. On May 16, however, the Partnership removed the transcript from its Twitter feed and website. The new White House statement says that in the “newly negotiated understanding,” the UAE has informed the US that Abu Dhabi and Dubai carriers Etihad Airways and Emirates Airline “have no current plans to begin any new commercial fifth freedom flight routes, which are of particular concern to the US carriers.” <br/>