BA, the troubled airline that says it's fighting for survival, today highlighted the scale of its own dominance on key routes between London Heathrow and the US.

The airline claimed that Virgin Atlantic had double standards by criticising BA's own plans to merge with American Airlines while airline V Australia had applied for anti-trust immunity with Delta on routes between Australia and the US.

In terms of scale, V Australia, which is just six months old, has 3 aircraft in its fleet compared with BA's 200+.

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic, commented:

"There is simply no comparison between the two. With 80% market share, BA and AA are the two biggest and most dominant airlines between Heathrow and key US cities, whereas V Australia and Delta's market share on the Pacific routes are much, much smaller. Also, they don't have a stranglehold on an airport as large as Heathrow. Heathrow is full and no-one can replicate BA's dominance there if they tried."

BA's market share proves its dominance. Together with AA, they would have the following capacity shares:

Heathrow-Dallas Fort Worth 100%

Heathrow-Boston 80%

Heathrow-Miami 70%

Heathrow-Chicago 68%

Heathrow-JFK 62%

Heathrow-LAX 48%

Virgin Atlantic was forced to pull out of serving Heathrow-Chicago for Winter 2009 due to the overwhelming dominance of BA and AA on the route.

Steve Ridgway added:

"There is good and bad consolidation. While Virgin is trying to ensure there is intense competition on routes and that strong rivals are created against dominant players, BA and AA are trying to stifle competition which will ultimately reduce choice and raise prices."

For further information please contact the Virgin Atlantic Press Officeon +44 (0) 1293 747373 or log ontowww.virginatlantic.com