Though press pool reports from President Donald Trump's meeting
Thursday with airline industry representatives did not showcase an in-depth
understanding of the aviation industry on the part of the president, Trump
pledged to reduce regulations and hasten infrastructure improvements.
Attendees included Delta CEO Ed Bastian, Southwest Airlines
CEO Gary Kelly and United Airlines president and CEO Oscar Munoz. American
Airlines CEO Doug Parker was unable to attend because the meeting conflicted with
American's annual leadership conference in Dallas.
Trump said he would roll back "burdensome
regulations" and promised an announcement in the next few weeks that would
be "phenomenal in terms of tax," according to White House press pool
reports. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer later clarified that Trump's
impending announcement is not specific to airlines but would be a
"comprehensive tax plan that will address the business side and individual
rates."
Trump also spoke of "an obsolete plane system" and
"obsolete airports," according to press pool reports. Spicer said
remedies would include "public-private partnerships for infrastructure
improvements" and working with the industry to expedite the approval
process for such projects.
Kelly urged Trump to make air traffic control modernization
a priority, to which Trump replied, according to pool reports, "I hear
we're spending billions and billions of dollars, and it's a system that's
totally out of whack." He indicated that could be improved should a pilot
run the FAA. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta's term ends in 2018.
Trump also spoke of "subsidized competition"
against U.S. carriers, according to Bloomberg, and while he did not elaborate
on specific companies, he seemed to be alluding to claims by some U.S. carriers
that Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways are in violation of Open Skies
agreements by receiving government subsidies, a claim the Gulf carriers deny.
Bastian, Munoz and Parker sent
a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this month requesting a
meeting to discuss those claims and urging the U.S. government to review its agreements
with United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Trump did not discuss a course of action related to Open
Skies agreements with the Gulf governments but did say he'd encourage foreign
airline investment in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. In a briefing earlier
this week, Spicer expressed the Trump administration's support for the
Department of Transportation's 2016
approval for low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle to expand operations in
the U.S. Several U.S. carriers had fiercely contested that move. "My
understanding is that there is a deal in which they're having 50 percent of the
crews and the pilots are America based," Spicer said. Norwegian later
confirmed those details. "They're flying Boeing planes. There is a huge
economic interest that America has in that deal right now."
After Thursday's meeting with Trump, the U.S. airline CEOs
focused on a hope that the industry would be able to work with the president on
infrastructure improvements. Munoz shares "the president's … commitment to
protecting and creating American jobs" and looks forward to working with
him on initiatives like "modernizing our aviation infrastructure and
cutting the red tape that gets in the way of our industry's ability to deliver
the best experience for our employees and customers." Bastian expressed a
similar sentiment.