by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM NewsWednesday, February 15, 2006 Subscribe to Clynt's newsfeed
Republican senator Jesse Anderson Lujan has been pushing a petition that would allow for Guam to have Open Skies. Continental Airlines has been opposed to this petition since the beginning. Continental Airlines vice-president of sales and marketing Wally Dias gave a speech to the Rotary Club of Guam again stating his company's opinion with regards to Open Skies.The Open Skies petition was filed electronically with the U.S. Department of Transporatation on February 9. Senator Lujan says this is a huge milestone for Guam. If the petition is accepted by the federal agency, the senator says it would be an even bigger accomplishment. "You're going to see a dramatic drop in ticket prices," he projected. "That's competition - that's the American way."The senator contends that this will happen from allowing foreign low-cost carriers to fly into Guam and on to other destinations in the U.S. Dias feels that this is not the case. He contends that Guam already has open sky treaties with several countries in the region such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. "So there's nothing today preventing Singapore Air from flying here or from Continental Micronesia to fly to Singapore," the executive explained.Senator Lujan however says that although this is true foreign airlines country can't fly to Guam pickup more passengers and then continue on to another area of the U.S. In fact, he says they must fly back to their country. Conversely, Dias says that would mean a unilateral agreement between the U.S. and foreign countries; in other words, a one-way agreement in which the foreign countries are allowed to transport passengers from U.S. port to U.S. port without the U.S. being allowed to do the same thing in that country.Dias qualified, "No country in the world has ever given cabotage wavers to another foreign carrier."Dias also doesn't buy the idea that Continental has been overcharging customers and that competition would drive the costs down. He says that if Continental was indeed overcharging, other domestic carriers would jump on the opportunity to make money on Guam by charging less. Senator Lujan on the other hand says that according to a study conducted by the Guam International Airport Authority, there are foreign low-cost carriers who are interested and who would charge less."It doesn't make sense that we can fly to the Philippines and buy a roundtrip ticket from the Philippines to the U.S. mainland and pay a lot less than we're paying from here to even Hawaii roundtrip," said Senator Lujan.Senator Lujan believes that Open Skies would allow Guam to become a hub for transit passengers and cargo increasing the overall traffic through our airport and thus bringing the island more money and more competitive rates. The senator says that it should take four to six months for the DOT to make its decision.