U.S. VOWS TO KEEP FOCUS ON NEW AVIATION POLICY

U.S. VOWS TO KEEP FOCUS ON NEW AVIATION POLICY    Following his trip to Europe and with very little positive to say about it, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater has pledged to continue his efforts to develop multilateral aviation agreements around the world.
   Slater wants to move the United States and its trading partners past the traditional system of bilaterally negotiating aviation rights country by country to a more regional approach that would have several nations joining to sign single agreements. “We’ve tested (the bilateral) architecture to the limit,” Slater said at a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
   Slater had hoped to persuade the EU to explore closer regional aviation ties during his trip there last week, but the hushkit issue has put all EU-U.S. aviation matters on hold.
   An EU ban on certifying older planes fitted with noise-muffling hushkits is slated to go into effect May 4. The United States has filed a formal complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization seeking to block the ban.