Originally Posted by hvisti

Star Alliance is bound to file a complaint to the EU competition authorities that JAL+BA would have too significant a share of LHR-NRT traffic. This happens every time anyone wants to join Oneworld. Then the competition authorities will rule that this is, indeed, the case and they'll demand that current Oneworld + JAL must give up landing slots at Heathrow to *A.

This is the point discussions can end. If neither BA nor the joining airline is willing to give up any LHR slots, that's it then. With JAL I'm a bit more optimistic as it must have several profitable long-haul routes and it's not that dependent on NRT-LHR traffic. Also, they're probably already analysed the threat and might have something in their sleeve to get rid of this requirement if it happens.

We'll see how it turns out. It would be nice to have JAL onboard, it would give much more freedom for us xONEx:ers in Asia.

/hv