U.S. airlines are being sabotaged by unfair competition on global flights, putting at risk the hub-and-spoke system that supports their ability to connect small- and medium-sized airports to larger hubs and global destinations. What good is a shiny, new airport without planes to land at it?

America’s aviation market is experiencing what the steel industry went through — the dumping of cheap, subsidized goods meant to shut down the competition. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have poured more than $50 billion into their state-owned airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, which means they can expand anywhere and everywhere they like, regardless of profit or demand. Their seat capacity to the United States grew by 43 percent in just two years.

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