It was in 1985, the year Airline Business was founded, that I landed my first job in aviation as the State Department lawyer responsible for air services negotiations and policy.
At the time, Pan Am was already in terminal decline. The sale of its Pacific routes to United in 1986 gave me a first taste of negotiating with Japan and the bittersweet pleasure of equating victory with hanging onto existing rights.
In the North Atlantic, the USA was mired in the repulsive muck of the 1977 Bermuda 2 agreement with the UK. Controversies over capacity, pricing, and business restrictions flared up constantly, with France, Germany, Italy and other nations on the Continent keeping me and other lawyers gainfully, if not productively, employed. A common European air transport market was a great topic for cocktail party-chatter but far detached from reality.
What a difference today. The USA has negotiated Open Skies with almost 100 countries, including a landmark two-stage accord with the European Union, and a brand new open skies agreement with Japan, an achievement that still seems like a fairy tale. In three bold packages, Europe worked a miracle of its own, creating a single aviation market and massively shifting regulatory competence from the member states to the European Union.
