General Requirement of the Fly America Act
The Fly America Act states, generally, all flights charged to federal projects must be taken on U.S. flag air carriers or on foreign air carriers that code share with a U.S. flag carrier on the flight taken. This includes flights within the U.S. If there is no U.S. carrier to your destination, you must travel on a U.S. carrier as far as possible. By law, the additional cost for U.S. carrier flights is not sufficient justification to fly on foreign carriers.
There are exceptions, most notably the Open Skies Agreement, please scroll below for more information.
For International Destinations
These U.S. carriers and their foreign code share partners travel to major cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America:
Alaska Airlines (AS)
American Airlines (AA)
United Airlines (UA)
US Airways (US)
Delta Airlines (DL)
All airlines are obligated to inform the traveler of code share flights. Additional information on airline code share alliances is available on:
StarAlliance.com with 21 partners including UA/US
Oneworld.com with 10 partners including AA
SkyTeam.com with 11 partners including DL/NW/CO
Reminder – A code share flight must be documented with the U.S. flag carrier airline code. Regardless of which carrier operates the flight, the flight must be ticketed with a US carrier flight number.
For Domestic Travel and Travel to Canada
Airtran Airways (FL)
Alaska Airlines (AS)
America West Airlines (HP)
American Airlines (AA)
American Trans Air (TZ)
Delta Airlines (DL)
Frontier Airlines (F9)
Hawaiian Airlines (HA)
Jet Blue (B6)
Midwest Express (YX)
Southwest Airlines (WN)
Spirit Airlines (NK)
United Airlines (UA)
US Airways (US)
Virgin America (VX)
Open Skies Exceptions
The biggest exception to the Fly America Act is the Open Skies Agreement. On October 6, 2010, the United States and European Union (EU) "Open Skies" Air Transport Agreement was published by the U.S. General Services Administration providing full explanation of the multilateral agreement in place so that qualifying travelers, whose travel is supported by federal funds, may travel on European Union airlines as well as U.S. flag air carriers. A list of current member countries of the European Union is available at the Europa web site (plus Norway and Iceland). There are also Open Skies agreements with Australia, Switzerland and Japan.
What does the Open Skies Agreement mean to Federal Funds Travelers?
When air travel is supported by federal funds, travel to the following destinations must either be on a U.S. carrier or, for specific destinations, may be on a European Union (EU) (plus Norway and Iceland), Australian, Japanese, or Swiss airline.
Important Note: The Open Skies Agreements do not apply if travel is funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) or by a department of the U.S. Military. Travel funded by the DOD or by a U.S. military department must be on a U.S. flag air carrier.
Travel to a European Union Country, Norway and Iceland
According to the Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and European Union (EU) countries, Norway or Iceland, you may fly on any EU airline but ONLY when:
1. Travel is NOT funded by U.S. DOD (Department of Defense) or U.S. Military,
AND
2. Flight touches down in an EU country, Norway or Iceland
For example:
Nairobi, Kenya to Amsterdam, Netherlands (EU) to San Francisco, U.S.
Washington D.C., U.S. to Paris, France (EU) to Entebbe, Uganda
You may NOT use a European carrier, you MUST use a US carrier, in the following examples:
Lagos, Nigeria to Houston, U.S.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Dubai, UAE (Non-U.S./Non-EU country) to New York, U.S.
When both conditions are met (1. Not funded by DOD or Military and 2. Flight touches downs on a EU country), you may travel on any of the following airlines:
U.S. flag airlines
Austrian (Austria)
Brussels Airlines (Belgium)
Cyprus Airways (Cyprus)
Czech Airlines (Czech Republic)
Finnair (Finland)
Air France (France)
Air Berlin (Germany)
Lufthansa (Germany)
British Airways (Great Britain)
British Midland International (Great Britain)
Virgin Atlantic (Great Britain)
Aegean Airlines (Greece)
Olympic Air (Greece)
Malev Hungarian Airlines (Hungary)
Icelandair (Iceland)
Alitalia (Italy)
airBaltic (Latvia)
Luxair (Luxembourg)
Air Malta (Malta)
KLM (The Netherlands)
LOT Polish Airlines (Poland)
TAP Portugal (Portugal)
TAROM (Romania)
Adria Airways (Slovenia)
Iberia (Spain)
SAS (Sweden)
This is not a complete list, but covers most common EU airlines.