Originally Posted by FlyerGoldII
I have been intrigued by the regulators going after OW in terms of LHR, but after Star Alliance in terms of Frankfurt, or after Sky Team in terms of Paris, Amsterdam, or Rome. In USA, how can the regulators state that OW's AA/BA will have too much of some of the major airports' transatlantic (to England) business, but do not say the same thing to Star Alliance's UA/US/LH regarding traffic to Germany, or Sky Team's Air France/KLM/Alitalia along with Continental/Northwest/Delta traffic to Paris/Amsterdam/Rome.
The big difference is that France , Germany and the Netherlands ( and I think Italy as well ) all have open skies agreements with the USA so there is no restriction (other than finding available slots) on additional US carriers entering these markets to boost competition - as we know Bermuda II limits LHR to two US carriers UA and AA ( or their "corporate successors" should one of them go chapter 7 ) therefore the US sees quite a major anticompetitive threat in the alignment of AA/BA