Comment by kodablah | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kodablah | Hacker News Reader

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> Only airlines which have 50.1% EU ownership have ‘flying rights’ to operate between two airports within the EU.

Forgive my ignorance towards this law. One wonders if this is economic protectionism or for security (I am aware of similar situations in other countries/regions). So I couldn't have a majority-Norwegian-owned airline that did Germany to France stops? One wonders if all countries are happy with such policies or if this type of protectionism is more justification for self-determinism for the countries that disagree.

Also, could this be another way to look at it: you no longer have to be a majority-EU-owned airline to fly between UK and EU country. I.e. UK would not be subject to such EU rules. Of course companies with many avenues for revenue are going to conform to the most strict of them to get all business when reasonable. That doesn't always make it best for citizens.

It's for protectionism (though in practice the EU lifted existing domestic protectionist barriers on intra-EU flights whilst keeping them against outside nations)

Reciprocity is important here. If EU rules imposed no operator nationality restrictions (other than safety ones) on operating intra-EU flights, there'd be no reason for a protectionist US or UAE to negotiate deals allowing EU carriers to fly into their country at all, and those countries' carriers would be able to use their monopolies on intercontinental routes into the EU as the starting point to dominate all the profitable intra-EU routes from their European hubs too.

As you mentioned yourself, similar regulations exist in most other countries, so it's not something specific to the EU. In fact the EU opened up the airline market and contributed to the spectacular growth of low-cost carriers like Ryanair or easyJet that could easily operate across the whole region (and hire where labour costs are lower), which was not possible before.

Most countries have a distinction between "domestic" airlines and "international" airlines that both protects the domestic airlines and regulates them more closely.

If you consider the entire EU one country from an airline perspective, this makes sense.

Sure, I acknowledged the "most countries" aspect specifically to avoid these comparisons and focus on the content. I wonder, in current times, if the policies remain more for security or economic reasons. Regardless, my comment is less about that these laws exist and more about lack of country-level sovereignty for those that disagree (regardless of how you consider the EU) and whether it can also be beneficial to the UK to be free of such a law.

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