Originally Posted by
BasilBush
That set me thinking that maybe BA's (and the EC's) market position is so strong that they feel they can get away with behaviour/actions that would not be possible in a well-functioning competitive market. If so, that could amount to abuse of BA's market power, and might be grounds for a competition inquiry.
I always find these arguments amusing in that what options would a competition really have to effect change?
One option would be the break up of BA into a number of smaller airlines but this seems to go against present thinking and these smaller airlines would be vunerable to be taken over by bigger airlines. In addition the route network which is BA's biggest asset would be lost.
Another approach would be as suggested before is to keep BA but strip their LHR slots and auction them off to the highest bidder, how I would suspect there would be legal implications in stripping a private business of its assets.
There are those that argue that legacy carriers have too much power as it is difficult to establish a new airline (ask SRB) but name me a goverment who would be prepared to sacrifice their flag carrier for the sake of open competition. In the USA there are no one national flag carrier for the goverment to protect in the same way.
In summary, a competition inquiry ain't going to happen as would have no real power to do anthing.