Brussels, 03/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Talks between the European Union and Tunisia on an Open Sky deal are expected to resume this month. Electronic Tunisian media suggest that the country is evenly split between people who want to open up Tunisian skies to EU airlines, including low-cost flights to boost tourism, and others fearing the danger of this new type of competition for Tunisia's national airline, Tunisair.
The talks have already been postponed once to give the Tunisian government time to negotiate with its hotel owners and tour operators, on the one hand, and its airline industry, which have opposing interests. The country's media point out what happened with the only Open Sky agreement thus far in North Africa, namely the agreement between the EU and Morocco. Royal Air Maroc, the national airline, came close to bankruptcy six months ago before being bailed out by the government. It problems were mainly caused by competition from low-cost airlines like Jetairfly (which recently bought Jet4you), EasyJet, Ryanair and Air Arabia. (FB/transl.fl)