The much-anticipated first flights under the international Open Skies agreement landed at DFW last week. Arriving flights from London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol were honored with a "shower of affection" by the Airport's Fire Department as they rolled to the gates.
The day-long celebration commemorated the historic Open Skies Agreement between the United States and European Union, which began Sunday last week. DFW hailed the historic event "Super Sunday," inaugurating new international service to London Heathrow via American Airlines and British Airways and Amsterdam Schiphol via KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The day also marks the single largest one-day expansion in international air service since the Airport opened in 1974.
'These new flights will mean hundreds of millions of new dollars for the North Texas economy that will create new opportunities for many businesses," said Jeff Fegan, CEO of DFW International Airport.
"Our next steps as a community will involve turning these first connections into more and more avenues of growth," said Tom Leppert, Mayor of Dallas. "These flights present new opportunities for us to explore in a long and ongoing path of economic development, implementing new ideas and making old ones better. We now see that the North Texas region can and will be more heavily involved in international cooperation on medicine, on science, on business investments, and of course commerce, trade and tourism. And it all flows through DFW, one of the world's great transportation centers, the hub that brings our area international investment and cooperation."
"British Airways, American Airlines and KLM are making quite an investment and commitment to our region with these new flights and our Airport will do everything it can to make these new destinations a success," said Mike Moncrief, Mayor of Fort Worth.
"We are pleased that the new Open Skies agreement has given us the opportunity to better serve our customers," said Marilyn DeVoe, American Airlines vice president of the DFW hub.
"We are proud to add DFW International Airport to our prestigious list of business partners," said Peter Hartmann, CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
