Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson responds to BA, AA, and Iberia merger

It was announced yesterday that British Airways, American Airlines, and Iberia were forming a joint venture.  In response Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson has spoken out against their decision claiming it will ultimately hurt the customers.  Branson termed the joint venture a “monster monopoly” adding that if they were able to successfully complete their merger the price of tickets would become higher and competition would be nearly nonexistent. 

Branson said “If this monster monopoly is approved it will be third time unlucky for consumers. It will still be bad for passengers, bad for competition, and bad for the UK and US aviation industry.  The current economic slowdown is also no justification for agreeing to this alliance. The job of the regulators is to assess the long-term impact of the alliance on competition, not to provide special protection from the immediate challenges of the economic cycle, with which every other airline has to deal.”

British Airways, American Airlines, and Iberia all intend to remain separate companies.  Their intentions are simply to work together in a commercial sense.  All three are current members of the Oneworld global airline alliance.  Cooperation between the three would occur on flights between the European Union, the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

If the United States and the European Union approve the antitrust immunity for the joint venture they would occupy almost half of the available flight slots at Heathrow airport.  Branson argues that would simply be ‘unacceptably dominant.”

www.virgin-atlantic.com

www.britishairways.com

www.aa.com

www.iberia.com