
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 22, 1994                   TAG: 9407220144
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

AVIATION PACT WITH BRITAIN IN PERIL

Increasingly frustrated by Britain's refusal to open London's Heathrow International Airport to U.S. airlines, the U.S. government is seriously considering renouncing the aviation agreement between the two countries, a senior U.S. transportation official said.

Patrick Murphy, acting U.S. assistant transportation secretary for aviation and international affairs, said the lack of results from two years of negotiations has left the United States with few options but to scrap the agreement.

In January, Transportation Secretary Frederico Pena said he was not ruling out the possibility of tossing the agreement with the British, but that discussions with Britain would continue.

Since that time, however, there has been a complete deadlock between the two countries, despite written pleas in June by six U.S. airlines to President Clinton for negotiations to resume.

Murphy declined to say when the United States might announce the nullification of the British pact. The United States is required to give the British one year's warning before the bilateral agreement goes out of effect, he said.

by CNB