April 29, 1998|By BLOOMBERG NEWS
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- British Airways PLC and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines must forfeit close to 300 takeoff and landing slots at London's Heathrow Airport in order to win European Union approval of their proposed alliance, Karel Van Miert, the EU's top antitrust official, said yesterday.
Van Miert said in an interview that the EU is scaling back its demand because the airlines are likely to give up slots on their own as travel declines on two routes. He didn't say which routes had declining travel or which slots were at issue.
Originally, the EU proposed that the airlines give up 350 slots at Heathrow last year.
Van Miert denied a report that the airlines had agreed to give up 280 takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow. The companies also said the report, in the trade publication Flight International, was unfounded.
Van Miert said British Airways, AMR and the EU are still discussing the number of Heathrow slots to be relinquished.
He also said an alliance of UAL Corp.'s United Air Lines and Deutsche Lufthansa AG should forfeit about 100 slots at European airports to win EU approval of their alliance. The official said the EU "hopes" to issue its final ruling on both alliances by August.
The BA-AMR alliance has been held up for almost two years in regulatory reviews on both sides of the Atlantic that have focused on the number of takeoff and landing slots the carriers need to surrender to preserve competition at Heathrow Airport.
"We're continuing to discuss the proposed alliance with the competition authorities in Brussels," said BA spokesman Iain Burns.
Rivals contend that British Airways and American would dominate the market, with more than 60 percent of passengers between the United States and Britain.
The 350 slots the European Commission, which enforces EU antitrust policy, proposed last year is equivalent to 25 daily round-trip flights.
BA and American said they hope the EU will rule on their alliance at the same time as other trans-Atlantic air alliances under review, such as the existing linkup between United and Lufhansa.
"If they're seeking slots from us at Heathrow, we would certainly want to see them do the same for United-Lufthansa at Frankfurt," said American spokesman Chris Chiames.
Pub Date: 4/29/98
