'Let Brussels take charge'

THE Government must give up powers to regulate and control the UK aviation industry if global airlines are to pull out of a 'time warp of protection', British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington said today.

In his strongest indication yet that he is dissatisfied with the Blair administration's latest attempts to broker an Open Skies agreement with the US, Eddington said it was time for the Government to cede powers to Brussels. 'Our industry is stuck in a time warp of regulation and protectionism,' Eddington told a meeting of aviation industry leaders in New York

He called for Brussels and not Whitehall to handle future negotiations with Washington. The failure of talks earlier this year led the US government to impose harsh conditions on BA linking more closely with American Airlines as a precursor to the UK carrier's entry into the American market.

'We would like to see the European Union have a single external face,' he said. 'We welcome the day when the [European] Commission will represent the whole Union and be mandated to negotiate on behalf of all member States. By then agreeing with other countries new arrangements that remove restrictions on routeings and limits on ownership and control, the EU would open its markets to foreign competition and facilitate the consolidation of the industry in Europe. To complement such arrangements in Europe, we will need to see an opening of the US aviation market to normal competition.'

Eddington said the US had set up a 'spider's web' of so-called Open Skies bilateral arrangements with more than 50 countries. But it had stymied competition and consolidation: 'Such agreements have done little to open up domestic markets to foreign carriers, to introduce competition from airlines from third countries onto international routes or to remove ownership and control restrictions.'

The EU and US must agree a common approach to competition or the 'international competitive playing field' would remain tilted. Eddington also criticised US-led security measures: 'Our customers have been very patient in tolerating lengthy lines and invasive searches when exceptional circumstances demand. They will not, however, accept them as the norm.'