Originally Posted by
mduell
No, PMCO for most of its history was excluded from LHR due to route authorities, not slots, under
Bermuda II. They
also did not have any slots, because they couldn't use them even if they did.
Correct. Until the US-EU Open Skies agreement came into force in 2008 the US-UK air travel was restricted by a bilateral (Bermuda II), with only two US and two UK airlines able to fly LHR-US (pmUA, pmAA, BA and VS). Everyone else (DL, NW, CO, US) had to use Gatwick, and AA also flew LGW-DFW. Over time those carriers acquired slots at LHR and migrated everything over to LHR.
The US has Open Skies agreements with more than 100 countries and so you don’t see bilateral restrictions on US carriers that often. China and Hong Kong (separate bilaterals) are the two that keep coming up