20 June 2008

BA's new subsidiary airline OpenSkies takes off

British Airways (BA) becomes the first carrier to take true advantage of the bilateral EU-US Open Skies agreement as it launches direct flights to North America from France today (19 June).

The flag carrier has created a new subsidiary especially for the service - named OpenSkies - after a well-publicised furore regarding its recruitment of non-BA pilots to help fly the aircraft.

This is an exciting new chapter in our history as, for the first time, we will be flying directly between continental Europe and the US, said BA CEO Willie Walsh.

We are confident that OpenSkies will have a successful future. It will benefit from BAs experience in the transatlantic market and have the ability to be innovative and respond quickly to changing customer demands. OpenSkies will become a test-bed for new customer services and on-board products that we hope to integrate into British Airways [mainline] fleet.

A new Boeing 757 has been fitted with three cabins Biz has 24 fully flat business class seats the first in the Paris-New York market it says; Prem + offers 28 reclining leather seats with a 52 pitch, and Economy has 30 seats. A second 757 is scheduled to join OpenSkies later this year from BAs fleet, and six should be operating by the end of 2009. Other European destinations being considered for the airline include Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Milan.

In the face of sky-high fuel prices, all the business-only airlines operating transatlantic services from the UK have failed in the last few months Silverjet was the last, folding last week despite frantic attempts to fight on but Walsh seems bullish BA has a solid formula for success with this subsidiary.

While the economic climate has worsened in recent months, we believe that OpenSkies can compete effectively, added Walsh. It has a low cost base and support from BA in key areas such as sales and marketing. This differentiates it from some new airlines that have failed recently which were operating in isolation without the backing of an established carrier. +