British Airways may freeze north Atlantic routes
Amelia Torres
Brussels, Jan 23: British Airways (BA) and AMR's American Airlines (AA) have proposed to the European Commission to delay implementing their proposed alliance on North Atlantic routes to win EU regulatory approval, a source familiar with the case said on Thursday.The exclusion would be temporary until rival companies have obtained slots on the highly coveted routes, the source said. ``It's a period in which the implementation of the alliance on the North Atlantic routes would not take place, but during which the other carriers interested in slots make their best efforts to get the slots up to a certain number." He said getting slots could involve, ``natural processes, other people giving them up, growth in the airport capacity or whatever is needed during that period." But he declined to say how long the period would be or how many slots would be necessary to allow effective competition on the routes concerned. The Commission has demanded that the two airlines give up about 350 weekly landing and
take-off slots at London's congested Heathrow airport to avoid creating or strengthening a dominant position on routes between Britain and the United States. BA has so far resisted relinquishing more than 168 slots and insists it should be allowed to sell them, not to give them up for free as the Commission wants.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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