Reports now show that the European Commission has come forward and told, not only British Airways, but American Airlines and Iberia that they may have to give up take off and landing slots to press ahead with their transatlantic tie up. However, British Airways says it’s ready to refuse these antitrust concerns.

It has been said that the European Commission noted that the agreement between the three large airlines was very likely to result in appreciable competitive harm on seven different European to United states transatlantic routes.

The European Union’s competition regulator went on to point out that this agreement could break a lot of competition laws. A remedy for this could be to transfer airport slots to rival airlines. However, British Airways shot back and said that the three way tie up in no way would dominate the transatlantic market. They also pointed out that this tie up is no different from the ongoing tie up between Lufthansa and Air France.

These three airlines had revealed last year, on August 14^th, that they had signed an agreement to cooperate on flights between North America and Europe. The aim here was to help the companies beat out rising fuel costs and falling demand.

British Airways also went on to say in a statement that the opening of Heathrow to new United States routes via this so called Open Skies treaty should not mean that slots should have to be given up. The carrier also went on to say that growing capacity at Madrid airport is encouraging competition from the Spanish capital as well.