NOTHING’S CHANGED SINCE THEY LAST FAILED TO LINK-UP WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES:

• BA/AA and Iberia would control nearly half of slots at London Heathrow
  
  
• BA/AA would have two-thirds of capacity between Heathrow and New York JFK
  
  

Virgin Atlantic today showed why nothing had changed since BA last failed to link-up with American Airlines and achieve their ambition to fix prices and schedules. BA/AA together would become a monster monopoly that would increase ticket prices and substantially reduce competition on the busiest air corridor in the world.

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic, said:

"BA already dwarfs other alliances operating out of London Heathrow. Other alliances had to get anti-trust immunity simply to try and play catch-up with BA, the most dominant airline servicing the Heathrow to US market. Both BA and AA have barely changed their arguments since the last time they filed for permission from the regulators, as they know that the world hasn’t changed since they last tried. They would still be dominant at Heathrow, they would still be dominant between Heathrow and key cities in the US, and they would still be getting bigger against the consumers’ interests."

* frequency shares when BA/AA previously filed for anti-trust immunity in 2001.

Steve Ridgway added:

"BA has been dancing to the same tune with every application. None of Willie Walsh’s predecessors was able to implement such a monster monopoly, which is against the consumers’ interests, and he won’t be able to this time either."

For further information please contact the Virgin Atlantic Press Office on 203.750.2570