A war is brewing in the transatlantic travel industry. No sooner did the Open Skies Agreement, an unprecedented change in airline cooperation amongst the governments of the US and the EU, did things turn sour. The UK is getting ready to impose a new tax that will increase flights costs substantially for all passengers.

They are proposing an air passenger duty tax on every flight of up to £100 for long haul flights. The most affected would be transatlantic flights because the new tax system is tiered towards the mileage of the flight.

What is the purpose of this new tax? It's an attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions. They hope that by making the cost of a transatlantic flight ticket go up, they can discourage airlines from flying half empty planes. The tax will also, for the first time, apply to transatlantic air freight. The overall goal of the new UK passenger tax is to shift the environmental costs associated with global warming to passengers. The logic is that people will not want to pay more and thus think really hard about flying less, thus reducing overall carbon emissions.

As someone who travels frequently to England, I can recognize that it would be an unmitigated disaster for transatlantic air travel and transatlantic tourism. The taxes and fees imposed on a transatlantic airfare are already more than the ticket itself. With the rise in fuel costs hurting the airlines, this will only make transatlantic travel unaffordable for many people.

The more taxes that are imposed the further away my next trip to London will be. This saddens me greatly. The UK government should be encouraging travel and tourism.

If the US government has anything to say about it, it's going to do everything it can to stop this new tax. The US is dubious to the environmental aspects. The government believes that it's simply a cash grab by the UK government, always on the lookout for more tax revenue. It will also be a boon in revenue for airlines. The position of the US government is that this new tax won't force the transatlantic airlines to actually adjust anything. The US also considers this new tax illegal.

Expect people to start flying transatlantic to other European cities, in a way to bypass the UK's new repressive tax regime. The US usually doesn't back down on these things and Gordon Brown has a good history of changing his mind on tax, so stay tuned for further updates on the latest in the Transatlantic Tax War.

This past week, American Airlines began operating a new transatlantic route between Chicago O'hare and Moscow, Russia. This makes American Airlines the first American based airline to offer a direct flight Chicago to Moscow.

The new route marks a change in strategy for American, which because of the troubles facing all airlines right now, is trying to diversify by expanding to more lucrative international and transatlantic routes.

The flight will feature a Russian speaking cabin crew and vodka and wine will be served. The route is expected to be popular as there is a large Russian community in the Chicagoland area.

The flights will be daily and will cross a distance of nearly 10,000 miles and take about 10-11 hours depending on tailwind speeds.

This past week, Air Canada announced that it was launching a new transatlantic route from it's Capital Ottawa to Frankfurt Germany.

Previously, passenger would have to drive two hours to Montreal to get non-stop flights to Europe.

The new flight will fly seven days a week, will leave at 5:10pm and arrive in Germany at 6:30am the next day.

The transatlantic flight industry is certainly heating up.

Airlines are dropping like flies right now due to the troubled economies of the world along with high oil prices. Silverjet is the latest victim to fall.

Silverjet was a business class only airline that sought to lower the cost of transatlantic air travel, while still providing the comforts of business class. It was popular at first and had good growth prospects.

Last week, Silverjet called in the receivers and ceased operations. It said that a high debt coupled with rising oil prices and a decline in business travel due to tough economic times, forced a the airline to fold, leaving nearly 10,000 travelers stranded.

The idea of a transatlantic only airline is not a flawed idea. Where they failed was catering to only business class. I think it's time for a discount transatlantic airline a la Southwest that's focused on the lowest possible prices.

The last time I flew British Airways to London, I noticed all the ways they could be saving money and thus providing a cheaper ticket. Most of their 'luxuries' aren't really luxuries and certainly aren't worth the money.

They provide free booze and drink, a free dinner, socks, headphone, eye cover, blanket, pillow and on demand entertainment. All this is included in the price of your ticket. They could easily charge for all these things. I don't drink booze, the food is always inedible and I can bring my own headphones. It's a total waste of resources.

Silverjet should have gone the discount route and offered basically what would amount to a bus in the sky. That would have been a success. And I hope someone steps up soon to give the transatlantic airlines a run for their money. With the recent US-EU open skies agreement, it will be easier for a new transatlantic airline to pop up and give the big players a run for their money.

Can you imagine if Easyjet had a $10 fare to Chicago from London. It would change everything.

Continental Airlines recently launched a new transatlantic service from Cleveland, Ohio to Paris, France. The flights have been taking place since May 22nd.

The new transatlantic route will be flying from Cleveland Hopkins Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport. This is the second transatlantic flight to be launched from Cleveland Airport. Continental has been flying to London Gatwick from Cleveland since 1999.

Continental expects the new service to be popular with business class transatlantic travelers who may use the flight to connect to other flights on the European continent. The service will only be running through the summer until September. If it's a success, the airline will most likely continue the service.

Expect many more airlines to launch new transatlantic routes as the US-EU open skies agreement comes into full force.

The Canada based airline, Zoom announced recently that it was increasing the number of it's transatlantic flights. They're expecting a busy summer travel season between Canada and the United Kingdom this year and are pretty confident in their ability to fill the planes.

It will be adding flights between Cardiff, Wales and Toronto, Ontario. It will also introduce a weekly flight between Cardiff, Wales and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Zoom Airlines has built a strong reputation as one of the cheapest airlines to fly transatlantic with. They're a budget airline but without being a cattle hauler like US airline Southwest. They include a hot meal with the ticket as well as free beverages.

Flyzoom is taking advantage of the recent liberalization in US and Europe transatlantic flights thanks to the Open Skies Agreement. The airline Zoom is also expected to begin offering flights to and from the continental United States, something that will give some competition to the big players. Currently Zoom Airways has a small fleet of five planes that fly to 15 destinations with their headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.

Best of luck to them. I hope they give British Airways their run for the money.

In Slovenia this week, the United States and the European Union opened up a second round of talks on their joint 'Open Skies Agreement.'

The result of the previous round was the beginning of the liberalization of transatlantic air travel. This removed many barriers for foreign airlines operating in the US and EU. Now, regardless of country of origin, any airline can fly to any city in the respective countries. For example, if Aer Lingus really wanted to, they could run a direct flight from South Bend Indiana to London, or Paris or any airport in Europe and any airline could do so vice versa.

This has significantly opened up transatlantic air travel and will greatly increase completion for transatlantic fares. Now, with more airlines competing, it will drive the price of transatlantic fares down. This will be great for travelers on a budget.

The goal of the second round of talks that were started today, is to expand the agreement into allowing foreign airlines to operate domestically in the US and EU. For example, allowing a British Airways flight between Chicago and Atlanta. The United States is very leery of this, as they think it will harm domestic airlines who will be open to competition and may not be able to survive.

If these plans go through, expect more mergers and acquisitions in the airline industry. We could conceivably see the founding of a truly global airline that can serve anywhere in the world.

The competition will only good for consumers. Especially consumers looking for a good deal on transatlantic fares. I've been monitoring the transatlantic fare prices over the past few months and I've already noticed fares going down. Even summer fares to London are not that expensive right now.

Let's hope the powers that be continue to works towards transatlantic airline deregulation.

Hey everyone.

I got a flyer in the mail this past week with the lates info on Cunard Transatlantic Cruises. I've posted the latest dates on the Transatantlic Cruises page.

They currently have a sale going on now, where you can get accomidation for as low as $899 per person! A great deal. Almost comparable to the cost of a transatlantic flight.

First post in the transatlantic blog.