WikiLeaks Disclosure Shows U.S. Airlines Received Billions in Subsidies
Skift Take
Missing in action in the U.S. airlines' report about the Gulf carriers' subsidies was transparency about the U.S. airlines' own subsidies. Although the congressional report is very dated, the Business Travel Coaltion, via WikiLeaks, is helping to fill in some of the blanks.
WikiLeaks did more than expose governmental eavesdropping and foreign policy blunders: A 2009 data dump is shedding new light on the spat between Delta, United, and American and the three largest Gulf carriers over government subsidies and Open Skies agreements.
The Business Travel Coalition, which backs retaining Open Skies agreements and is seeking to counter the U.S. carriers' charges that Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad received $42 billion in unfair government subsidies, uncovered a U.S. congressional report, disclosed by WikiLeaks in 2009, that documents how U.S. aviation, including commercial airlines, the FAA, and airports, received $155 billion in federal direct spending from 1918 to 1998.
That, of course, doesn't take into account any potential U.S. government subsidies to the aviation sector in the intervening 17 years or benefits from bailouts and bankruptcy proceedings, which the three U.S. carriers participated in during the 2000s.
WikiLeaks six years ago released th
