The Honorable Penny S. Pritzker Secretary of Commerce U.S. Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20230

The Honorable Anthony Foxx Secretary of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation

120 0 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590

The Honorable John F. Kerry Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520 May 27 , 2015

Dear Secretaries Pritzker, Foxx and Kerry,

A commitment to healthy competition has always been a source of pride in the U.S

. This

c ompetition in business is what helps ensure fair pricing and fair options are available to the American people and to the international parties who enter our country for business and
leisure travel . Today, we stand at a critical juncture where that fair and healthy competition is in jeopardy.

U.S. legacy airlines, American, Delta and United, are attempting to persuade you an d other
members of Congress to keep competing airlines from expanding in the U.S. They are demanding that the U.S. take an unprecedented step in thwarting this competition by freezing new routes for three Gulf carriers : Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways

. Why? The y claim that the Gulf carriers receive unfair support from their governments. The truth is that

v irtually all global airlines, including U.S. carriers, have received some form of financial or regulatory subsidies from their governments.

It is beca use of this fact that the U.S. and all 114 other Open Skies nations agreed to articles of “fair competition,” based on the solid foundation of unrestricted market access, not how a government treats its airlines under financial and commercial regulations. To freeze routes for
the Gulf carriers would effectively revok e our “Open Skies” agreements with the Unite d Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, and give U.S. legacy carriers a stranglehold on air travel that would negatively impact our entire economy.

Consider the following:

The exhibitions industry, through direct and indirect spending, contributed $71.3 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2014. This economic revenue was generated, in part, through business conducted
at exhibitions and other face

- to

- face events with international parties. Freezing routes for foreign carriers, as American, Delta and United Airlines are demanding, would cripple foreign business access into the U.S., denying U.S. companies of all sizes access to hundreds of
thousands of dollars in sales and contracts.Additionally, Open Skies agreements have helped bring more U.S. cities in to the international travel market , expansion that

drives significant economic revenue

. A record 75 million international travelers visited the U.S. in 2014 and spent $180 billion on travel goods and services, directly supporting over one million U.S. jobs. That was all because of Open Skies. The U.S. is projected to reach 100 million international visitors a year by 2021, but without Open Skies, that goal will remain j ust
a dream. Cities like our own home market of Dallas, as well as Detroit, Las Vegas, Memphis, Minneapolis, Portland and Salt Lake City have benefitted from new or enhanced direct connections to and from international destinations. These

connections have translated directly into business opportunities as foreign investors take advantage of acces s into our
markets and access to our workforce.

It’ s imperative that you remember Open Skies agreements are a tried and true mechanism t o creating healthy competit ion
that benefits us all

. The agreements permit free

- market access in international aviation, eliminating government control over routing, frequency and pricing, driving down prices and delivering billions in savings to travelers and billions in revenue

po tential to business

.

We believe that Open Skies agreements should be preserved given their benefits to the entire U.S. travel industry, not just their impact on three individual airlines.

Open Skies a greements work for the American traveler and the Ameri can economy

. This country was built on hard work and healthy competition and we cannot let the desires of three airlines b lock new competi tion and limit traveler choice. If these U.S. carriers succeed, both consumers and our overall economy will suffer. St and by Open Skies agreements and stand by the U.S. economy.

Sincerely,

David DuBois, CMP, CAE, FASAE, CTA
President & CEO
International Association of Exhibitions and Events TM (IAEE)