I thought, prior to Openskies launch, that it would target locations with good markets but 'weak' flagcarriers: Brussels and Milan (or Rome) were obvious contenders.
But now I'm thinking that the strategy is different. The target market (at least initially) is the US East Coast resident. Sure, BA/OpenSkies will eventually compete with BA's partner AA (but I don't think AA fly JFK-AMS) but the aim is:
1) to show that BA has an alternative to the alliance with AA
2) to undermine US resistence to greater foreign ownership of US airlines under stage 2 of EU-US agreement , by demonstrating that BA (and other Euroepan airlines) have an alternative.
Whatever you think of BA as an airline, they're quite good at developing strategy, at least on this evidence.
So, no, KLM won't lose a moment's sleep over this. But the US airlines that fly NYC-AMS (NW, Delta, Continental, maybe USAir from Philadelphia) might get worried about their yields.
Last edited by answer=42; 28th Aug 2008 at 12:13.