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Originally Posted by GUWonder
Originally Posted by
DC777Fan
The DOT -- and by the DOT, I mean an unelected bureaucrat at the DOT -- decided that Kuwait Air's refusal to transport Israelis (in this case on the JFK-LHR route) does not constitute discrimination. The federal lawsuit, as I understand it, challenges that decision.
The DOT allows airlines to do what all common carriers with service to/from the US do: discriminate based on citizenship/nationality in determining which documents are and are not acceptable for international travel on their own planes.
If the DOT is going to absolutely ban carriers from discriminating on the basis of passenger citizenship when it comes to transport on their own international flights serving the U.S., then all common carriers with service to/from this country better be prepared for massive amounts of fines (from the U.S. and foreign governments) for transporting people, regardless of citizenship, who may or may not be admissible and/or eligible for transport under the laws of all involved countries (the sending country, the vehicle flag country, and the receiving country) for a given flight.
Are there any situations,
other than Kuwait's Fifth Freedom JFK-LHR and LHR-JFK flights, where the laws of the carrier's flag country require discrimination that is not also required by the laws of a flight's sending/receiving countries? Or is this a one-off situation merely involving these particular KU flights?
Nothing -- except, perhaps, economics -- requires KU to carry local traffic between JFK and LHR.