ATW Daily News

Oneworld airlines tell US DOT ATI would not stifle competition

Tuesday March 17, 2009

Oneworld carriers American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Royal Jordanian yesterday jointly filed answers to the US Dept. of Transportation's request for additional information regarding their transatlantic antitrust application and expressed confidence that a decision will be made by DOT in the second half of 2009.

"Antitrust immunity will benefit the public by allowing oneworld to compete more effectively against the SkyTeam and Star alliances, both of which already enjoy broad antitrust immunity," the airlines said. In the portions of the heavily redacted filing that were made public, the carriers argued that slots at London Heathrow are not overly restricted and that granting ATI for oneworld would still allow competition across the Atlantic. "In fact, there has been so much new capacity added to US-London routes that it is not at all clear that there is even a current need for more new entry," they wrote (ATWOnline, Feb. 4).

They noted that "almost any departure slot is a viable time for a North American service" and insisted that a good number are available or held by unaligned carriers. They did concede that arrival slots at LHR are more limited owing to the small "window" of suitable timings because "overnight services from North America have to depart before airports close for the night and arrive after Heathrow opens."

Nevertheless, the carriers pointed out, not all slots are being utilized. "Despite campaigning for US-EU open skies, and having nearly four score of suitable Heathrow slots, bmi has still chosen not to launch new US-Heathrow service a full year after the agreement went into effect," they noted.

by Aaron Karp

Other headlines: