3 airlines offer antitrust concession
British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia have offered to give away takeoff and landing slots at London and New York airports to soothe European Union antitrust worries, EU regulators said Wednesday.
The European Commission said it would ask other airlines whether freeing up slots at London Heathrow, London Gatwick and New York’s John F. Kennedy airports would be enough to create more competition and entice rivals to start new routes from those airports to New York, Boston, Dallas and Miami.
EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres said the offer could see rivals start two extra daily flights each from London to New York and from London to Boston and one more daily service from London to Dallas and from London to Miami my credit score.
If rivals are supportive, regulators said they would move to make the three airlines’ offer legally binding and drop an antitrust case that could have racked up millions of euros (dollars) in fines.
One rival, Virgin Atlantic, said the airlines’ offer was "woefully inadequate in counteracting the anti-competitive harm of a combined BA/AA," claiming that it would hurt consumers by raising prices and destroying competition.