Skift Take
U.S. airlines made executive changes and product upgrades last year to improve performance. But this data will only encourage the Big Three legacy carriers to redouble efforts with the Trump administration to curb foreign airline expansion and reopen Open Skies agreements.
Foreign airlines increasingly take market share from U.S. airlines on their own turf, according to data released by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office last week, as the Open Skies debate heats up.
Foreign airlines' passenger totals for flights to and from the U.S. were up nine percent in 2016 compared to U.S. airlines' two percent increase, according to the data.
More than 220 million people traveled to and from the U.S. last year, up six percent from 2015, but U.S. airlines carried less than half of that traffic.
Earlier this month, President Trump expressed support for revising U.S. policy on Open Skies agreements when he met with U.S. airline CEOs at the White House.
Qatar Airways, for example, saw its passenger traffic to and from the U.S. soar 46.5 percent last year while Emirates flew 3.5 million people to and from U.S. airports, a 15.4 percent increase over 2015.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer previously said the U.S. has a "huge economic interest" at stake in Norwegian Air's business in the U.S. Norwegian Air, which got regulatory approval to operate more U.S.-bound flights last year, carried more than 1.75 million passengers to and from the U.S. in 2016 (a 57 percent increase). Nearly 516,000 of Norwegian's arrivals were non-U.S. travelers.
Data also show that actual scheduled U.S. flights to and from Cuba totaled 2,255 in 2016. Nearly half of U.S.-Cuba flights last year (1,093 flights) took place in December, and 587 of these were to Havana
