British Airways has confirmed that it plans to fly new routes between continental Europe and the US from June, taking advantage of the Open Skies deal which opened up transatlantic air traffic.
BA will start with one Boeing 757 aircraft flying daily between New York and either Brussels or Paris Charles de Gaulle airports, with a second starting flights to the other destination later in the year. The routes will be operated through a subsidiary airline, to be called OpenSkies.
'It signals our determination to lobby for further liberalisation in this market when talks between the EU and US take place later this year,' chief executive Willie Walsh said.
The move follows the Open Skies agreement last March, which will allow EU airlines to fly from any city in the 27-nation union to any city in the US and vice versa, replacing bilateral arrangements that date back to World War Two.
But European airlines have complained the deal unfairly favours US rivals, and EU states have agreed to scrap the deal if Washington does not agree by 2010 to a second phase allowing foreign airlines to buy more voting rights in US carriers and permitting them to run domestic US services.
BA plans to put six of its 757s onto routes between the US and mainland Europe by the end of 2009.
