BRUSSELS, June 25  — The European Commission has welcomed the adoption of the “second stage” of the Open Skies aviation agreement with the United States signed in Luxembourg on Thursday, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

“This is a significant step forward in our mutually beneficial aviation relationship with the US. It is extremely good news for passengers, cargo shippers, airports and airlines who will all benefit from the additional commercial opportunities, ” said EU transport Commissioner Siim Kallas in press statements.

The second stage agreement builds on the benefits of the first EU-US Open Skies agreement signed in 2007. > Under the new deal, the EU ad the US have committed to the goal of removing remaining access barriers and will review progress towards this objective on an annual basis. The EU and US markets are the largest aviation markets in the world. Together, they represent approximately 60% of global aviation. The potential economic benefits of removing the barriers to the EU-US transatlantic market are very significcant in economic terms, it could be worth up to 12 billion euro in economic benefits and up to 80,000 new jobs (spread more or less equally between the US and the EU), noted the statement.

It would create the possibility of an additional 26 million passengers on transatlantic flights over a period of five years. This compares with current annual traffic of just under 50 million.