BA Plans Expansion to Europe

BA plans to launch flights between European capitals and the US next year in a bid to cash in on ‘open skies’ aviation liberalisation. A BA spokesman said it intends to fly between the US and ‘a number of European capitals’ from next summer using Boeing 757 jets.

However the spokesman declined to name the citiesinvolved, which reportedly include Paris, Madrid and Brussels among others. The flights will include a premium cabin for business customers, although they will not be exclusively business class. The spokesman also declined to confirm a report in the Sunday Times claiming the airline would set up a subsidiary to operate the flights, saying details were still being worked out.

‘When there’s something to say on that front, we’ll say it loud and clear,’ he said.

Although BA opposed measures in the open skies liberalisation deal agreed in April this year to open up the restricted market between Heathrow and the US, it welcomed proposals to liberalise transatlantic services from European capitals, saying it would challenge flag carriers such as Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM and Alitalia ‘on their own turf.

20 August 2007