Well, maybe. I’ll believe all of this when I actually see it happen. But it does seem we passed a major milestone in the bigger fight today.

The European Union today entered a deal with the United States that will boost competition and the number of passengers flying across the Atlantic, but said the accord was only a first step to prise open the US air travel market.

Under the so-called “open skies” agreement – the first of its kind – EU air carriers will be allowed to fly from any airport in the 27- member EU bloc to any airport in the US and vice versa.

The accord will replace bilateral pacts between the US and EU countries, ruled as illegal by the EU’s highest court.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, hailed the unanimous agreement as a “breakthrough” for trans-Atlantic aviation ties.

However, he acknowledged that the deal was only second-best for the EU, as it did not fully open the trans-Atlantic air travel market.

EU ministers said they were poised to immediately start negotations on a second deal with the US in a bid to gain more access to the closed US market.

For the rest of the story, please click here.

However, at Britain’s request, EU ministers agreed to delay plans to implement the deal from October this year to March 2008.

The UK had raised concerns that open skies reform did not go far enough on US airline ownership rights.

As most of you are aware, the US has insisted on limiting any foreign company from owning more than 25% of a US airline’s voting rights.

This is a huge deal folks. Especially for the cargo carriers. I’m sure the champagne is apoppin’ at FedEx, even if their numbers yesterday left a little to be desired.

One thing is for sure. It should certainly make for a very entertaining 12 months as the details of how this “big picture” change will be implemented in practice.

Kicking off that line of thinking this morning was Continental, which immediately filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation for rights to serve new routes to Europe, including a Houston-Heathrow route and a Cleveland-Paris route.

Bada Boom, Bada Bing. Let the fun begin!