Originally Posted by
floridastorm
Most of the foreign carriers, I'm afraid, are not state owned or partially state owned. That used to be the way it was 20 years ago. Today, most foreign carriers are privately owned. However, they seem to actually manage their airlines efficiently. By the way, the American carriers are all subsidized by the American government in one way or another. In addition, just about every foreign carrier I have traveled with over the last few years has flown at almost 100% capacity. So, there are an awful lot of Americans that are flying these planes. I also don't see many foreign airlines going bankrupt like most of the US carriers have.
"State owned" and "state subsidized" are two sides of the same coin. U.S. govt. employees and contractors are forced to fly U.S. carriers, and foreign carriers are barred from flying between U.S. cities. Both policies distort the free market. Air Canada knows it competes with the Asian and Middle East carriers, hence its product on those routes is far better than any U.S. carrier. United believes Delta is the competition and has the product to prove it.