Business | Aviation
BA, American, Iberia offer EU antitrust concessions
Carriers also proposed to allow access to their frequent flyer programmes on the routes and submit data on their cooperation
- Bloomberg
- Published: 00:00 March 11, 2010
Brussels: British Airways, American Airlines and Spain's Iberia have offered to cede a number of lucrative trans-Atlantic slots in an attempt to ease competition concerns and gain EU approval for their alliance.
The European Commission said yesterday interested parties would have until April 10 to comment on the airlines' concessions. The three carriers are members of the Oneworld airline alliance.
"If the market test confirms that the proposed commitments remedy the competition concerns, the Commission may adopt a decision ... making the commitments legally binding on the parties," the European Union competition watchdog said.
It said in a statement that the airlines had offered to give up some landing and take-off slots for routes from London to Dallas, Boston, Miami, Chicago and New York and from Madrid to Miami.
The carriers also proposed to allow access to their frequent flyer programmes on the routes and submit data on their cooperation. The commission opened an investigation into the planned alliance last April.
The airlines want to manage jointly schedules, capacity and pricing as well as share revenues on routes between North America and Europe.
American Airlines, BA, Iberia, Finnair and Royal Jordanian Airlines last month secured tentative approval from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for their plan to form a global alliance.
The DOT has given interested parties 45 days to object. Answers to objections will take a further 15 days.
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