Michael Jennings of Samizdata has an article explaining how the incestuous tangle of bilateral airway agreements led Virgin Atlantic Airways to give Cathay Pacific US landing rights in exchange for "fifth freedom" passage via Hong Kong on the Australia passage, and why British Airways and a passel of whining American carriers are up in arms about it. It's all very mercantilist in a way that I had thought had disappeared during the Carter Administration deregulations. Samizdata is good for "you learn something new every day" articles like this...