BMI looks to America
David Gow
Saturday August 17, 2002
The Guardian
The government has given the nod to BMI British Midland to apply to run flights from Heathrow, London, to the US, a long-cherished goal of Britain's second largest airline.
A breakthrough in the logjam that has held up agreement between the UK and US on "open skies" or liberalisation of transatlantic services for several years came in informal talks in Washington late on Thursday.
A surprise UK proposal, effectively bypassing long-standing resistance by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to giving up their duopoly at Heathrow, would give other airlines - British as well as American - four extra daily flights to the US over the next two years.
"We anticipate that BMI British Midland will apply to be a designated airline," Whitehall officials said yesterday. "It's up to the US to distribute these extra frequencies among their designated airlines."