BA and AA clear another hurdle to merging
The weekend nod from the US Department of Transportation in favour of a merger between British Airways and American Airlines was condemned by Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson as a “kick in the teeth”.
Responding to the Department’s proposal to grant immunity from antitrust competition laws to American Airlines, Sir Richard said “consumers would pay the price for years to come” and it would “blatantly harm competition”.
Antitrust laws exist in the US to stop airlines from fixing prices and schedules but airlines can be granted immunity if it is thought that the end user will actually benefit from airlines working more closely.
The Department of Transportation said this weekend that it thought the merger would boost competition in the industry "by creating competition with the existing Star Alliance and the SkyTeam alliance, which already have been granted immunity."
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