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"The British government so far doesn't seem to be listening, but I wonder how American passengers will feel about these aircraft carrying their citizens and flying through their airspace," McAuslan continued. "An American airline will have three pilots when flying to Los Angeles and a European airline will be able to fly with just two pilots. Which airline would you choose?"



McAuslan touted U.S. efforts to enact more stringent pilot fatigue rules after the 2009 Colgan Air crash in Buffalo, N.Y.



"American regulations have tightened considerably since the fatal Colgan Air crash in 2009 and the United States can be proud of having the lowest fatal air accident rate in the world," he said. "We need Europe to be improving its standards, as the United States has done, not lowering down for the sake of harmonization with Europe."



The European Union has separately been at odds with U.S. airlines over a proposal to increase carbon emission trading requirements on flights to airports within EU countries.





