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GAO-04-34R 1 (2003-10-30)

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       Accountability * Integrity * Reliability
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548


         October 30, 2003


         The Honorable Trent Lott
         Chairman
         The Honorable John D. Rockefeller
         Ranking Minority Member
         Subcommittee on Aviation
         Committee on Commerce,
         Science, and Transportation
         United States Senate

         Subject: Issues Relating to Foreign Investment and Control of U.S. Airlines

         In May 2003, the Bush Administration proposed amending the legislation that
         currently restricts foreign ownership of U.S. airlines, raising the allowable percentage
         of total foreign ownership of voting stock in U.S. airlines from 25 to 49 percent. The
         Department of Transportation (DOT) suggested that implementing this amendment
         could provide significant benefits to U.S. consumers and airlines, particularly by
         providing access to additional capital, which would help the financial health of the
         industry. DOT and the Department of State also maintain that these new limitations
         would bring the United States in line with current foreign ownership laws of the
         European Union (EU).

         Concerned about the effect that changes in foreign ownership and control
         requirements might have on the aviation industry, national interests, and
         consumers-and recognizing that we examined this issue in 1992 when DOT earlier
         proposed increasing the level of foreign ownership-you asked us to discuss two
         related topics: (1) current proposals to revise U.S. limits on foreign ownership and
         control, including information on current shareholders and past examples of efforts
         by foreign interests to purchase significant equity in U.S. air carriers and (2) whether
         key analytic issues raised in our 1992 report on foreign ownership and control remain
         relevant.' This report summarizes the information we provided to Committee staff
         during our June 25, 2003, briefing pursuant to your request. The briefing slides,
         which provide more details about our analysis, are attached as enclosure I.





         'U.S. General Accounting Office, Airline Competition: Impact of Change Foreign Investment and
         Control Limits on U.S. Airlines, GAO/RCED-93-7 (Washington, D.C.: December, 1992).


GAO-04-34R Foreign Investment in U.S. Airlines

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