Brussels- Competitors will get their say as to whether concessions offered by a cooperative effort of three
airlines go far enough toward preventing that group from jointly dominating the transatlantic market, the European Commission said Wednesday. At issue is an arrangement between British Airways, American Airlines and Spain's Iberia to share revenues and jointly manage schedules, pricing and capacity.
The commission - tasked with drafting and policing EU laws - is the highest antitrust authority in the bloc and can stop mergers and impose steep fines for anti-competitive behaviour.
In September it wrote to the three companies saying that their "extensive cooperation ... may be in breach of EU antitrust rules."
Now the commission has "invited comments from interested parties" over the airlines' proposed remedy to "make landing and take-off slots available at
London Heathrow, London Gatwick and/or
New York John F Kennedy airports to facilitate entry of competitors on routes to New York, Boston,
Dallas and Miami."
In addition, the three have offered to open their frequent flyer programmes to passengers using other airlines, the EU executive stressed.
If the response from competitors is positive, the commission said it could accept the airlines' commitments, making their fulfilment a legally binding obligation.
The commission said it was "in close contact" with the US Department of Transportation, which is carrying out a parallel investigation on the British Airways-American Airlines-Iberia deal.
