AFA strongly opposes cabotage and changing U.S. laws which now prohibit foreign carriers from conducting domestic flights within our country. The U.S. market is attractive to foreign carriers because it represents 40 percent of worldwide aviation traffic. Most other countries have just a fraction of that amount. It is doubtful U.S. carriers could significantly benefit from a scheme that grants all the European Community (EC) carriers rights to U.S. domestic routes and gives U.S. carriers rights to intra-EC routes.

Attempts to allow more foreign ownership of domestic carriers could essentially mean handling over U.S. carriers to foreign interests. This could result in little to no reinvestment in the industry. AFA supports properly monitored foreign investment and opposes any changes in foreign investment which could lead to foreign control of U.S. carriers.

AFA supports an approach to code sharing that offers limited foreign access to the U.S. market. AFA believes that code sharing and other international cooperative arrangements can improve international travel to the benefit of carriers and passengers. However, AFA opposes shifting from bilateral to multilateral aviation agreements. Bilateral negotiations permit a clear exchange of values between two parties and thus foster agreements that are mutually beneficial.