Open skies between EU and Canada

The European Union will begin talks with Canada soon to form an "open skies" aviation pact that the EU hopes will create jobs and boost the number of passengers flying between the two regions. EU transport ministers gave the executive European Commission a mandate to start the negotiations, which a Commission spokesman said would begin in the coming months. The Commission says such an agreement would generate 500,000 additional passengers and 3,700 jobs in its first year. It said 8.5 million passengers traveled between the EU and Canada in 2005.

The agreement would allow airlines such as Germany's Lufthansa to fly from any EU city to any Canadian city. Canadian airlines such as Air Canada could then fly to any European city.