StarAlliance Fan
Nov 27, 03, 12:29 am
Typical! These airlines cannot handle competition, especially BA. Forget BMI, I understand their frustrations but BA, come on! Are they scared that passengers will start flying CX between LHR-JFK...throw me a freakin bone for once!
BA, BMI oppose Virgin-Cathay driven UK-HK bilateral
British Airways (BA) and BMI are opposing any UK-Hong Kong bilateral air services agreement that would give Cathay Pacific transatlantic access from London in exchange for Virgin Atlantic fifth freedom rights to Australia.
The two carriers reaffirmed their opposition to such a deal as UK and Hong Kong officials met in the Chinese city to discuss a new aviation accord. The talks were scheduled to take place over 25-26 November but are now expected to continue into tomorrow.
Virgin Atlantic has this year campaigned hard for fifth freedom rights to allow it to serve Sydney via Hong Kong from London. It hopes to provide services to Australia from spring next year. It wants to increase competition on the UK-Australia routes which it argues are dominated by the British Airways-Qantas partnership.
At the same time Cathay is hoping to broker a deal enabling it to fly from its Hong Kong hub to New York via London.
BA is arguing against such an agreement and has told the UK Government that any bilateral deal should allow for up to 14 fifth freedom flights per week from Hong Kong, giving it and Virgin access. Additionally it wants to have similar rights for cargo operations to travel onward from Hong Kong to Japan and more liberal codeshare rights so it can co-operate with its Oneworld partner Cathay on Hong Kong–Taipei and Hong Kong-Auckland.
BA currently flies twice daily to Sydney via Singapore and Bangkok and daily to Melbourne via Singapore. Its oneworld partner Qantas services London to Sydney twice daily and Melbourne twice daily.
A BA spokeswoman says: “We believe there is no need to give London transatlantic rights to Hong Kong carriers. Virgin is not prevented from entering the Australia market under existing UK rights via intermediate points such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok (as we are) so there is no need to trade London transatlantic rights to Hong Kong carriers.
”We are sure the EU will be taking a strong interest in these talks, particularly around the UK granting London transatlantic rights to third country carriers when neither all UK carriers nor, indeed, other community carriers have such rights.”
BMI, which has long campaigned for access to the US market via London Heathrow, agrees with this view on a Virgin-Cathay deal.
“We made it quite clear [to the UK Government] where we stand,” says a BMI spokesman, adding: “Our concern is that if Cathay is given permission to fly Heathrow to the USA then that is something denied to BMI as part of the Bermuda II treaty and we would oppose that.”
But Virgin says it remains “cautiously optimistic that these talks will result in a deal with Virgin gaining fifth freedom rights on the Hong Kong to Sydney”.
Virgin says its “priority” is to serve Australia and it does not rule out flying via another Asian gateway. The spokesman argues that as it already flies daily to Hong Kong, and flying to Sydney via another destination would mean adding two new routes as it does not serve Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok.
BA, BMI oppose Virgin-Cathay driven UK-HK bilateral
British Airways (BA) and BMI are opposing any UK-Hong Kong bilateral air services agreement that would give Cathay Pacific transatlantic access from London in exchange for Virgin Atlantic fifth freedom rights to Australia.
The two carriers reaffirmed their opposition to such a deal as UK and Hong Kong officials met in the Chinese city to discuss a new aviation accord. The talks were scheduled to take place over 25-26 November but are now expected to continue into tomorrow.
Virgin Atlantic has this year campaigned hard for fifth freedom rights to allow it to serve Sydney via Hong Kong from London. It hopes to provide services to Australia from spring next year. It wants to increase competition on the UK-Australia routes which it argues are dominated by the British Airways-Qantas partnership.
At the same time Cathay is hoping to broker a deal enabling it to fly from its Hong Kong hub to New York via London.
BA is arguing against such an agreement and has told the UK Government that any bilateral deal should allow for up to 14 fifth freedom flights per week from Hong Kong, giving it and Virgin access. Additionally it wants to have similar rights for cargo operations to travel onward from Hong Kong to Japan and more liberal codeshare rights so it can co-operate with its Oneworld partner Cathay on Hong Kong–Taipei and Hong Kong-Auckland.
BA currently flies twice daily to Sydney via Singapore and Bangkok and daily to Melbourne via Singapore. Its oneworld partner Qantas services London to Sydney twice daily and Melbourne twice daily.
A BA spokeswoman says: “We believe there is no need to give London transatlantic rights to Hong Kong carriers. Virgin is not prevented from entering the Australia market under existing UK rights via intermediate points such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok (as we are) so there is no need to trade London transatlantic rights to Hong Kong carriers.
”We are sure the EU will be taking a strong interest in these talks, particularly around the UK granting London transatlantic rights to third country carriers when neither all UK carriers nor, indeed, other community carriers have such rights.”
BMI, which has long campaigned for access to the US market via London Heathrow, agrees with this view on a Virgin-Cathay deal.
“We made it quite clear [to the UK Government] where we stand,” says a BMI spokesman, adding: “Our concern is that if Cathay is given permission to fly Heathrow to the USA then that is something denied to BMI as part of the Bermuda II treaty and we would oppose that.”
But Virgin says it remains “cautiously optimistic that these talks will result in a deal with Virgin gaining fifth freedom rights on the Hong Kong to Sydney”.
Virgin says its “priority” is to serve Australia and it does not rule out flying via another Asian gateway. The spokesman argues that as it already flies daily to Hong Kong, and flying to Sydney via another destination would mean adding two new routes as it does not serve Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok.