Free the Heathrow Four

摘要

For a decade Britain and America, ostensibly two of the staunchest free-trading countries on earth, have been squabbling over liberalising bilateral air traffic between them. Yet there is almost no progress to show. A mini-deal offered by Britain, to let us Airways fly from Pittsburgh to London Heathrow, in return for British Midland being allowed to use some of its Heathrow slots for transatlantic routes, may yet prove acceptable to the Americans. But congressional hard-men are already lobbying to ban Concorde and shut British airlines out of busy east-coast airports. A long-running row threatens to turn into a nasty trade dispute that would hurt both sides—to say nothing of long-suffering passengers.