By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Certain Middle Eastern countries are gaming a trade agreement with the U.S., and this has erased more than 25,000 jobs, according to an industry advocate.
The Partnership for Open & Fair Skies is a group backed by America’s three major airlines and a number of labor unions in the aviation industry. The organization said the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have been violating the Open Skies agreements they have with the United States by subsidizing their airlines so American carriers can’t compete.
“We’re talking about 25,000 good jobs, 15,000 in the city of Chicago alone, supported by United Airlines,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “United operates [in]Peoria, Moline, Springfield and Champaign-Urbana. If they don’t have the connection through the hubs to operate these international flights because they’re run out of the marketplace, they won’t have the capabilities to serve those small communities either.”
The group has the Illinois congressional delegation in its corner. Seventeen Illinois-based members of Congress signed a letter sent in June to three members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, asking them to enforce the agreements.
“Unlike their subsidized Gulf carrier competitors, U.S. airlines serve smaller markets in Illinois, such as Champaign, Moline, Peoria and Springfield,” the letter read. “Air service and economic development in small communities will be jeopardized if subsidized competition weakens U.S. airlines’ ability to maintain robust hubs in our state.”
Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas and a former candidate in the Republican presidential primary race, recently voiced his support for sanctions on the violating countries, saying, “Failing to enforce our trade agreements harms American companies, workers, communities and consumers, all of whom these agreements were intended to protect.”
