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- <text id=91TT0230>
- <title>
- Feb. 04, 1991: Business Notes:Airlines
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Feb. 04, 1991 Stalking Saddam
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 60
- Business Notes
- AIRLINES
- Northwest Goes Dutch
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Should foreign airlines be allowed to hold major stakes in
- U.S. carriers? The old answer, motivated by national pride and
- security concerns, was no. The new answer, influenced by the
- dire financial condition of many U.S. airlines, is yes--within limits. Last week Transportation Secretary Samuel
- Skinner increased the allowable size of a foreign carrier's
- stake in a U.S. airline to 49% of equity, up from 25%.
- </p>
- <p> The plan is intended to help infuse struggling U.S. airlines
- with capital at a time when they are suffering from recession,
- a wartime travel slump and high fuel costs. Earlier this month,
- cash-starved Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years. Both
- Continental and Pan Am are operating under Chapter 11
- protection. One immediate beneficiary of the new policy is KLM
- Royal Dutch Airlines, which will be allowed to keep most of the
- 57% stake it bought in Northwest Airlines in 1989. Skinner
- believes that the infusion of foreign money will boost
- competition in the airline industry and help keep fares down.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-