NO PROGRESS MADE IN U.S.-U.K. AIR TALKS

NO PROGRESS MADE IN U.S.-U.K. AIR TALKS    U.S. and U.K. negotiators ended talks on Friday having made no progress toward liberalizing the restrictive U.S.-U.K. air market, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Department said.
   “It is not a good result,” the spokesman said. “We tried to make progress but nothing happened.”
   U.S. and U.K. authorities have been trying to hammer out some kind of agreement on air market liberalization for the past three years. Talks were suspended early last year after the United States failed to give antitrust immunity to an alliance of American Airlines and British Airways.
   Talks resumed in the fall propelled by a U.S. desire to reopen service between Pittsburgh and London. British Airways canceled its flights to Pittsburgh last summer, citing unprofitability.
   U.S. airlines also want greater access to landing and take-off slots at London’s Heathrow airport. Under the current regime, just two airlines from each country — British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways for the United Kingdom and American Airlines and United Airlines for the United States — can fly U.S.-U.K. routes.
   Both sides say they want greater liberalization of the cargo market. The issue of cargo rights came to a head last summer, after Federal Express won U.K. approval to serve points in Europe from Scotland. U.K. carriers accused their government of selling them out and have since pressed for a cargo deal. U.K. cargo carriers say U.S. airlines enjoy rights in Britain, such as wet-leasing, they do not have in the United States.