11/02/12, 01:51:57 EST

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US authorities scupper BA plans for new transatlantic airline

flightmapping.com

Plans by British Airways to launch a new airline operating flights between the Continent and New York have been thrown into disarray after American aviation authorities threatened to veto any increase of air traffic into the chronically congested John F. Kennedy airport.

The Times has reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is about to start talks with foreign airlines, including BA, to reduce congestion at JFK, the main New York airport.

The FAA wants airlines to reduce voluntarily the number of take-offs and landings at JFK or to move flights to less busy times.

The regulator has told all airlines that fly in and out of JFK that it plans to cap the number of flights at peak times, reducing the number of aircraft landing and taking off in the late-afternoon and evening rush hour by as much as 20 per cent.

BA is already planning to increase the number of services between Heathrow and JFK from 51 flights a week to 55 next year.

However, it is also planning to launch a new airline that will offer direct flights between Europe and the East Coast of the US next year to take advantage of the open-skies agreement that will take effect next Easter. Although BA has yet to announce the routes for the new airline, one BA executive has said that JFK will be the destination airport, where it has its own terminal. BA is JFK’s biggest overseas airline.

A spokesman for BA said yesterday: “We have not specified the destination for the new airline, but New York is the obvious destination. There would be an impact on BA [if restrictions were enforced], and we watch developments with interest. We would like this issue to be resolved as soon as possible. We have tickets to sell.”

An FAA spokesman told The Times: “We will get some kind of result on this by mid-December. If carriers aren’t shaping up, we will impose restrictions. The concern is the level of traffic in and out of JFK. We do not want a repeat of this summer.”

A spokesman for the International Air Transport Association said: “We are very concerned that they [the FAA] will cap services in and out of JFK. Nothing is finalised but the threat is there.

“Because the US has failed to grow its infrastructure, it is trying to penalise airlines and passengers. But, quite clearly, the status quo is not working.”

 Printable Version  | published Nov 11, 2007