BA begins its US assault

By TOM MCGHIE
Updated:

 

British Airways' long-awaited assault on its European rivals started last week when the airline applied to the US authorities to fly from every European airport to every airport in America.

The blanket application is designed to allow it to start new business class-only services from Milan, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid to New York, Boston and Chicago.

Financial Mail revealed last month that BA was planning such a service, but no application to fly the routes had been made.

Earlier last week, Virgin Atlantic announced it had applied to start a business class service from the Continent to the US. It wants seven planes to exploit the new routes.

BA's plans are far more advanced. Dale Moss, a former BA executive, has been rehired to head the continental sales blitz and Financial Mail understands that up to 20 wide-bodied Boeing 757 and 767 planes in the fleet have been earmarked for the services.

The plan has been hatched to take advantage of the Open Skies Treaty between the US and Europe, agreed this year, which frees the transatlantic route to all continental and US airlines. BA had objected to Open Skies because America refused to open up its domestic air space to full competition, but it was out-voted by continental carriers.

It now seems that they might have lost out because tough competition from BA and Virgin looks set to win business class passengers wanting to fly from the Continent to the US.

The European carriers cannot retaliate in London by offering similar services because Heathrow airport is already full and new slots are almost impossible to acquire.

A leading aviation consultant, Keith McMullan from Aviation Economics, said: 'BA and Virgin, which have a superb brand and good reputation for service, should be the winners.

'The problem for the former state-owned continental airlines is that they cannot take the competition to London because it is slot-constrained.'

Fears that economy travellers will suffer because business class passengers in effect subsidise them were dismissed by BA. A spokesman said: 'There will be no change to the US-UK services.'

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