The US Government is to move forward with its plan to ease limits on foreign investment in US airlines, despite congressional pressure to slow down the plan or withdraw it, according to Transportation Secretary Norman

Mineta.
There has been a reluctance on the part of many to embrace deregulation in this area, but ironically the recent debacle over whether Dubai-based DP World should be allowed take over six US ports has reopened the debate.
Some politicians have even tried to hide behind ‘security concerns’ in an effort to dissuade the Bush administration from making it easier for foreign carriers to take stakes in their US counterparts.
Mineta has also reacted angrily to an anonymous document which is said to have been produced by an airline that raises security questions about allowing any foreign investment in the US airline industry.
As proposals stand, the US Government is proposing legislation which would allow foreign investors to take stakes in US carriers up to a maximum of 25%. Mineta said reasonably that this hardly constituted handing the airline cockpit keys over to terrorists.