THE Orient Airlines Association (OAA) has gilded the lily a little in its complaint about US airlines' greater access to US airports.
The thrust of its argument for greater gateway access to US airports - that US carriers enjoy the right to fly into more US airports than OAA members do - ignores the way the agreements were made.
Gateway deals are done on a bilateral, government-to-government basis.
Cathay Pacific has the right to fly into just one US airport, Los Angeles, while Philippine Airlines can land in five. This is more, incidentally, than US carrier Delta, which has been granted the right to fly into only four.
Admittedly, most of the deals referred to by the OAA were done a long time ago and may well be due for a review.
But the imbalance of gateway rights in favour of US carriers is a notional one.