### Association of Professional Flight Attendants

May 28,2015

The Honorable Anthony Foxx Secretary U.S. Department ofTransporta tion 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 The Honorable John F. Kerry Secretary U.S. Department ofState 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520 The Honorable Penny Pritzker Secretary U.S

. Department ofCommerce 1401 Constitution Ave NW Washington, DC 20230 Offc:e of the President

Dear Secretary Foxx, Secretary Kerry, and Secretary Pritzker: On behalfof25 ,000 working men and women and their families, I write to you today to request that you move to begin consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to address the massive subsidies those governments provide their state-owned airlines. Furthermore, given the aggressive growth these carriers have undertaken since the release ofthe evidence against their multi-billion dollar subsidization, I ask that you make every possible effort to convince these companies to voluntarily freeze their expansion until such consultations are completed

. Our careers and our livelihoods are at stake. Indeed, the membership ofthe Association of Professional Flight Attendants faces no threat more serious and urgent than Qatar and the UAE's violations ofOpen Skies policy. To be very clear, APFA strongly supports Open Skies policy and the vast majority ofagreements the U.S

. has in place with countries around the world. For decades, Open Skies agreements have allowed our company to service foreign markets that are important to our customers, which has

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**10**The Honorables Anthony Foxx, John F. Kerry, and Penny Pritzker May 28, 2015 Page2
provided excellent flying opportunities andjob growth for our membership. The behavior ofthe governments ofQatar and the UAE is an anomaly, and one that must be addressed through the mechanisms provided in the agreements

. In the years since our industry's deregulation, and especially since the recent recession which took an outsized toll on U.S. airlines, the rank and file employees have played the most important role in making our companies successful and able to compete globally. This is especially true offlight attendants, who comprise the companies' greatest marketing asset, and of American Airlines. Now, after years of sacrifice, the new American is once again a world

-class carrier. Unfortunately, the subsidies being showered upon Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways threaten to undo much ofthe APFA membership's hard work and worse. With each international frequency an American carrier is forced to close due to the displacement oftraffic to a subsidized carrier, hundreds of jobs are lost both on the aircraft and on the ground. Flight attendants are already beginning to feel the squeeze. The carriers in question have flooded six ofAmerican' s major international hubs with undue capacity, putting thousands of jobs across our system injeopardy. Their entry into these markets has not created any meaningful passenger demand. Instead, these routes and frequencies simply displace traffic. The Gulfcarriers' strategy is simple: siphon off as much business as possible with subsidized fares and postpone profitability until after the American carriers are forced to scale down their networks

. With an essentially endless supply ofgovernment support, the Gulf carriers can afford to undermine U

.S. airlines and their workers for a very long time. Although conventional wisdom dictates that competition is good for consumers, any benefit our passengers may see from this subsidized capacity will certainly be short-lived. The alluring low fares will soon go away. As soon as they do, passengers will discover that the Gulfcarriers have undermined our network such that service to small and medium-sized domestic markets has greatly diminished or been eliminated entirely. Without a robust international operation, there will be less need to feed our U.S. hubs with traffic from smaller markets. As a result, the negative impact these abuses have onjobs will extend far beyond the big city hubs. It is critically important for your departments to take a wide view ofthis issue and consider both the long-term and downstream effects ofthis unfair competition. One ofthe most apparent examples ofthis unfair competition is the JFK to Milan route. Emirates operates this route with a Boeing 777 (although it plans to switch to the even larger A380 soon) and offers two-for

-one fares. Although the flight continues on to Dubai, it is marketed to New Yorkers as a Milan nonstop. Emirates can only operate this flight because ofthe unfair benefits it receives from its government owners. Emirates recently announced plans to establish more fifth freedom flights. The company ' s pursuit ofthis strategy puts flight crews and workers on the ground at JFK and beyond at serious risk.The Honorables Anthony Foxx, John F

. Kerry, and Penny Pritzker May 28 , 2015 Page 3
Additionally, it has been reported that flight attendants at the three major Gulfcarriers are routinely subject to harsh treatment, discrimination, and unjustifiable termination. APFA bas confirmed these troubling reports first hand

. As a mature and profitable global industry, commercial aviation should be progressive and its career opportunities should provide a pathway for the world ' s disadvantaged. It is APF A ' s position that all countries party to Open Skies agreements should be committed to the fair and equitable treatment ofairline employees. APFA bas worked bard to make American a global carrier. Flight attendants are confident in our product and our service

. We know that the new American can compete with any carrier in the world, provided we are competing on a level playing field

. In the case ofEmirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways, the playing field is not level. I urge you to take immediate action to rectify the situation. Our employer's long-term viability, and therefore our careers, are at stake. Thank you for your consideration.

aura Glading National President, APFA