BUSTING THE TOP 5 MYTHS SURROUNDING BA/AA

Reality - Heathrow remains a virtually closed airport. While the US-EU Phase 1 Open Skies agreement allows any US carrier to operate to/from Heathrow to any US city, it does not guarantee take off and landing slots. These slots can be prohibitively expensive - or simply not available - which prevents many airlines from entering or expanding LHR-US routes.

Reality - The difference is stark. While Heathrow is a virtually closed airport, all of Star and SkyTeam's key European airports are open to new competitors. Currently, BA offers more seats on Heathrow-US routes than all Star carriers together on Frankfurt-US routes and all SkyTeam carriers on Paris Charles de Gaulle-US routes. Adding AA - the No. 1 US carrier at Heathrow - to BA - the No. 1 European carrier at Heathrow by a wide margin - would further strengthen BA/AA’s stranglehold of Heathrow, the largest hub for US-EU passenger traffic; and dwarf the capacity of rival alliances on routes from their hubs to the US.

Reality - Consumers will be the big losers and BA/AA and their shareholders will be the only big winners. A combined BA/AA can only mean higher fares, less choice and the stifling of competition. BA/AA is an alliance that consumers cannot afford.

Reality - The current economic slowdown is no justification to let these proposals through. Regulators need to assess the long-term impact on competition, not to provide BA and AA with special protection from the immediate challenges of the current economic cycle - which every airline has to deal with. British Airways has been very profitable yet it is asking the Competition Authorities to allow it effectively to merge with American Airlines so it can thrive during a recession.

Reality - The two airlines are using data which does not give the full picture as it misses out all direct bookings through each airlines' websites and call centres as well as the huge volume of connecting passengers, therefore missing out millions of passengers from its figures.

Virgin Atlantic, using data from the US Department of Transportation which measures passengers actually onboard flights, says that BA and AA together have a market share of 62% of passengers flying between Heathrow and the US.

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