Delta has submitted a letter to the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA) to protest the agency’s award of the 2017 U.S. government
contract on the New York Kennedy-Milan route to JetBlue.
The decision, Delta said, in reality will direct U.S.
taxpayer dollars to Emirates, as JetBlue doesn’t operate transatlantic flights.
JetBlue codeshares with Emirates on JFK-Milan service.
Delta and American also offer daily flights between those
destinations. And they, as well as United, have since March 2015 been lobbying
the Obama administration to take action against Emirates, Etihad and Qatar
Airways, which they accuse of accepting $42 billion in state subsidies since
2004 in violation of international aviation agreements.
“This appears to be a glaring contravention of the Fly
America Act’s vision of “help[ing to] improve the economic and competitive
position of U.S. flag carriers,” Delta wrote in the Aug. 18 letter.
The Fly America Act requires the government employees whose
air travel is being funded by the federal government to fly on U.S. carriers.
In a written statement Wednesday, the GSA defended its City
Pair program, under which the JetBlue contract was awarded, saying that it will
save taxpayers $2.4 billion during the 2017 fiscal year.
“Under GSA’s City Pair Program, airfare rates offer a 51%
discount to commercial fares,” a spokesperson said.
Delta’s objection to the JetBlue contract was echoed
Wednesday by the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, an organization
comprised of Delta, United and American as well as several airline industry
unions. The objection is similar to one raised by United and Open & Fair
Skies late last year after the GSA awarded JetBlue the federal contract on the
Washington-Dubai route. Emirates also operated that flight under a codeshare
agreement with JetBlue.
United filed a formal protest of that contract award with
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), saying it violated the Fly America
Act. But the GAO ruled in favor of the GSA, stating, among other things, that
as long as a flight carries the code and flight number of a U.S. carrier, it is
considered to be a “U.S. flag air carrier service.”