I wonder what makes USDOT think a foreign national is any more or less likely to follow the rules than an enormous multi-national corporation like United or Delta?
These foreign-ownership rules do strike me as counter-productive protectionism.
These foreign-ownership rules do strike me as counter-productive protectionism.
Because evidently if any competition comes to the domestic aviation industry, US airlines are doomed.
Allowing international carriers transiting the US to do intra-city flights soaks up demand and lowers route profitability for busy routes.
Past practices were to balance demand across city pairs so as to avoid local monopolies (ie. Minneapolis and Delta/Northwest) and ensure universal service. Deregulation broke all of that, so we have price competitions at the cost of a race to the bottom in service and industry cycles of bankruptcy and consolidation. Long term, that means monopoly levels of service and pricing.
See, for example, Etihad's 49% stake in Alitalia, Delta's 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic, etc. -- significant investment happens, but controlling share is a lot less frequent.
Government does not care about outcome it cares about the show they need to put up to convince people they are doing something good.