Letter: US flying rights an internal issue

Sir: A Virgin Atlantic advertisement in your 4 December edition asserts that the right to fly into Britain and pick up passengers then fly on to Europe, is the same as flying to New York and picking up passengers then flying on to Miami. They are two different issues. The second one is called cabotage and is fought against in the UK as much as in the United States

Next, Virgin Atlantic would like us to believe that the US is a protectionist government. Nothing could be further from the truth. The US is very liberal to British carriers investing in US airlines, compared to most other countries.

Finally, Virgin would like the flying public to believe that Virgin Atlantic is protecting them from a merger that is somehow anti-competitive, when they practise the same thing with other US airlines. I think that Mr Branson should just stick to the facts.

MATT PAXTON

Vashon, Washington State,USA