May 27, 2015 Th e H o nor a ble Anthony Foxx Sec r e t ary of Transportation U. S. D e p ar tment of Transportation 1200 New
J e rsey Ave.

, SE W as hington, DC 20590 Docket# DOT-OST-2015-0082 The Honorable Penny S. Pritzker Secretary of Commerce U.S. Department
of Commerce 1401 Constitution Ave

. , NW W as hington, DC 20230 Docket# DOC-2015

- 0001 The Honorable John Kerry Secreta ry of State U. S. Department
of State 22 01 C St., NW W as hington, DC 20520 Docltet

# DOS-2015-0

0 16 De a r Secretary Kerry, Secretary Foxx
a nd Secretary Pritzk
e r: On b e h a lf of LTD Hospitalit

y Group

I am writin
g to urge you to continue to s upp ort th e Open
S ki es agree m ent with th e UAE a nd n o t reopen

n egot

i at i ons b ase d on the concerns of three U.S. a ir carriers

. My e mploy ees and
I trave

l quite ofte n t o India for bus iness and we va lu e the access to c iti es th roug h out India afforded by our Open Sk i es agreements with th e UAE and Qatar. A renegotiation will
j eopar di ze co mm erce, diminish

o ur close
c ultur a l interac
ti ons and impe d e travel b etween th e Washington, DC a r ea and these des tin a tion s. Open
S ki es is a n impor ta n t free trade po li cy . For d ecades,

s u c h agreements hav e ope n ed fo reig n d esti n atio n s to a ir tra ve l, without govern m e nt reg u l a t i on of routes, pricing

, o r car r ie r operations. Th e poli cy h as been
a res o unding

s u ccess

. Competition under Op e n S ki es has h e lp ed expan
d co n s umer
c hoi ce and c on tro ll ed fares. It i s up sett ing to think th at th e U. S . would now reconsider thi s a ppro ac h b ase d so l e ly on t h e se lf- i nt e r es t o f three
a irlin es . W as hin gto n DC re s idents of Indian
d esce nt h ave benefit

e d from Open Sk i es . M a n y of u s fly on G ulf S t ates ai rline
s . In so me cases

, the c hoi ce i s driv e n b y cost-savings, but ofte n i t i s the more direct routes,

f ewer co nne ct ion s, or truly impressive ame niti es that a r e ava il ab l e . These airlines offer m any welcome alternatives
to connections

in Mumbai and De l hi , a nd this factor

a l one h as attracte

d many Indian-American busin ess tr ave
l ers an d tourists. The motivation of the big U .S. car ri ers in attac kin g Open Skies is clear: Gulf States

a i r lin es are beat in g th e m i n fair

, h ea d-to-head compe titi on, and it's n o t b y simply und erc uttin g them
o n price. R a th er t h a n ri s in g t o the c h a ll e n ge, th e major U .S . a irlin es would prefer the U
. S. gov e rnment

t o ba il th e m o ut by r ewor king Op en Sk i es to their spec ifi ca tion s. S u c h int erve n tio n ism a li gns n e it her wit h Amer

i ca n va l ue s nor the c ountr y's best int e r es t s . 

# ~~LTD **~ ~~~** 
H 0 S P I T A ll T Y G R 0 U P ADDRESS 1564 Crossways Bou

l eva

r d ,Ch e sap eake

, VA 23320 P HONE 757.420.0900 FAX 757.4 2 0.093
1 W E B www

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i ta

l i ty. co m A LI MI TED LIAB

I LITY COMPA
N Y

# A thriving air tr ave
l mark et is good for tr ave lers, int erna ti o nal tourism, and the economy. We s h ou ld not close our airports

o ff from high

- quality foreign carriers at the behest of three airlines th a t a lr eady
e nj oy a domin
a nt market

s h a r e and are in no n ee d of government assis tanc e . In s ummary,

J et me relate
a t e n et that hundreds of years of hist ory has bo rne out: p r o tecti o ni sm does not work; free trade does. We encourage your agency to r ejec
t p r oposa

l s reverse

p r ogress by intervening unn eces sarily in Open Skies. S in ce r e ly, a n ag ing Princip

a l D Hospitality Group