American, BA seek smaller-scale alliance By Dan Reed, USA TODAY American Airlines and British Airways, twice denied their controversial=20 request to combine trans-Atlantic operations, are seeking approval of a=20 more modest arrangement allowing them to sell some trans-Atlantic seats on= =20 each other's planes. The carriers have asked U.S. government antitrust regulators for=20 code-sharing rights on trans-Atlantic routes where they don't compete=20 head-to-head. That would allow American, for example, to sell seats on=20 British Airways planes flying from Denver to London. American also could=20 sell under its own brand seats on BA flights to about 100 destinations=20 beyond London in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And BA would get the=20 right to sell tickets under its name on American's connecting flights to=20 about 190 destinations in the USA, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. The American-BA arrangement would offer fliers competitive alternatives to= =20 alliances between other U.S. and European carriers and convenient=20 connections while preserving competition on routes where the airlines=20 overlap, the Air Travelers Association, a consumer interest group, said=20 Tuesday. American and British Airways tried to get antitrust immunity to=20 combine trans-Atlantic operations in 1996 and again in 2000. Competitors=20 and some consumer advocates complained that the plan would have given=20 American and BA near-monopoly control over routes from the USA to London's= =20 Heathrow Airport, the most lucrative between the USA and Europe. Both of=20 those efforts died when regulators set conditions that BA and American said= =20 were too costly and unfair. With the immunity, the airlines could have shared revenue, costs and=20 sensitive marketing data and jointly set schedules and allocated capacity=20 on their shared routes. With code-sharing =97 so-called because flights= using=20 one airline's aircraft are sold under the two-letter computer code of the=20 other =97 they can't do any of those things. Rather, they act as marketing= =20 representatives for each other on routes they don't serve themselves. "We=20 want antitrust immunity but we believe that at this time, looking at the=20 regulatory environment, that may not be possible," said American=20 spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon. Who has paired up ... Major code-sharing partnerships between U.S. and=20 European airlines: United/Lufthansa United/BMI (formerly British Midland) United/SAS Delta/Air France Delta/Alitalia Delta/CSA Czech Northwest/KLM The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (chgdev) http://www.chagdev.com/ (Chaguaramas Development Authority) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************