'One-sided' open-skies deal angers BA

BRITISH AIRWAYS is calling on Transport Secretary Alistair Darling to veto a landmark international airline agreement that is set to increase competition by allowing US carriers free access to fly within the European Union.

BA is demanding intervention after the latest round of open-skies talks appears to have led to Brussels negotiators agreeing a deal that in return allows European airlines into the domestic US market only if they agree to charter aircraft from their American counterparts.

Andrew Cahn, BA's director of government affairs, said: 'The European Commission appears to be prepared to sign up to an agreement in which the Americans have run rings round them. This is the Americans at their most protectionist and mercantilist, a one-sided proposal which protects inefficient and heavily-subsidised American carriers from effective competition in their domestic market but gives them unlimited access to our markets.

'We ask that these negotiations are not concluded before next month's key meeting of transport ministers without granting us proper access to the US market. If not, we ask that Alistair Darling refuses to sign up, wielding his de facto veto.'

Airlines are currently barred from each other's internal market. European carriers believe meaningful negotiations with the US administration cannot take place until after November's Presidential elections.