The European Union and the United States re-launched on Monday long-stalled talks on opening up the huge transatlantic air market to greater competition, aiming to strike a deal by the end of the year.
"I'm hopeful that we can reach an agreement by the end of the year, I hope to initial an agreement in November," the head of the transport department at the European Commission, Francois Lamoureux, told journalists.
The latest round of "open skies" talks is expected to last all week in Brussels and to be followed by another round in Washington for the week beginning on November 14.
The aim is to do away with existing patchwork of bilateral agreements between various EU members and the United States and set up one system regulating transatlantic air transport.
The talks also coverd plans to step up transatlantic co-operation on safety. In June 2003, EU member states gave the European Commission a mandate to negotiate a treaty with Washington after the European Court of Justice deemed that parts of the existing bilateral agreements breached EU rules.
The offending parts of the bilateral accords were so-called "nationality" clauses, under which European airlines were allowed to operate transatlantic flights only from their home countries.
The stakes are huge for both the US and the EU as well as passengers and consumers.
A study commissioned by the European Commission has calculated that an agreement with the United States would reap benefits worth as much as five billion dollars (4.16 billion euros) per year to consumers.
It also found that an agreement could lead to as many as 17 million additional passengers per year. Dumping the nationality clause in the current agreement is also expected to lead to a wave of mergers in the industry, which remains much more fragmented along national lines compared to other sectors.
In addition to being able to fly from any where in Europe to the US, the Europeans are seeking to gain access to the US' huge domestic passenger market, a prospect the US appears little disposed to grant.
Meanwhile, the Americans are keen to crack open rules that allow only four lucky carriers - British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines - to fly transatlantic flights out of London's huge Heathrow airport.
Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson said that he was happy to take on more competition but only if the Americans made big concessions.
"Virgin Atlantic believes in more competition but the only deal worth negotiating is a true open aviation agreement which removes all the regulations which distort our industry," he said in a statement.
"In simple terms, the EU must not trade access to Heathrow - its most valuable asset - for anything less than a true open aviation agreement," he insisted.