US may limit foreign-based airline flights on September 11

The United States may restrict flights by foreign-owned airlines to and from New York and Washington for much of September 11 and 12 as part of stepped-up security for the one-year anniversary of the hijack attacks, the government said yesterday.

A draft plan, developed by military, aviation and national security officials, was under review by senior transportation planners. They said no final decision had been made and that the plan could be scrapped altogether.

Under the proposal, an American-based carrier like United Airlines would not be affected, while internationally based airlines such as Air France would see their flights restricted.

The proposal triggered immediate controversy, with the airline industry calling it short-sighted and potentially discriminatory.

"It could invite retaliatory action against US carriers by foreign governments," said Wanda Warner, a spokeswoman for the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association. That trade group represents nearly 100 US and foreign airlines that provide international service to and from American cities.

"I don't know what kind of logic would suggest that their planes are a greater threat than our planes," said a former senior transportation department official familiar with international aviation operations. "September 11 was US aircraft, not foreign aircraft."

Others suggested the plan, if put in place, might violate carefully negotiated treaties on liberalising air service. The United States has more than 50 agreements with other countries that permit reciprocal airline service.

Some of those markets, with routes flown by US and international carriers, are lucrative and extraordinarily competitive.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said early yesterday the international carriers that would normally operate within a 30-mile radius of New York and Washington would be prohibited during much of the peak morning and evening travel times on September 11 and 12.

The restrictions would affect international passenger and cargo flights by foreign-owned airlines. Those airlines would also be prohibited from flying near Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where another of the commercial airliners hijacked crashed.

John Lampl, a spokesman for British Airways, said the restrictions as proposed would impact the carrier's operations at New York's John F. Kennedy airport as well as flights at Newark in New Jersey and Dulles outside Washington. Lampl said several arrival and departures, including supersonic Concorde flights, would be disrupted, if not cancelled.

Len Alcivar, a Transportation Department spokesman, said "in no way" was the plan final.

"The Bush administration's final position is up for discussion." He said a decision would be made as soon as possible.