American Airlines, Inc. and British Airways PLC

Issued and Served May 30, 2003

Order 03-5-33
OST-02-13861 - US-UK Reciprocal Codeshare

Final Order | Word

By this order, we make final, with certain modifications, our tentative findings and conclusions set forth in Order 2003-4-7, and grant the joint application of American Airlines, Inc., British Airways Plc, and certain of their affiliates, for the necessary regulatory authorities to conduct a number of reciprocal code-share services, subject to conditions.

In granting this authority to the joint applicants, we are modifying the initial list of points over which American and British Airways may code share, to conform to the amended list provided by the joint applicants in their April 21 Answer to Objections. That list of points is attached as Appendix 1. We have taken note of the concerns of United/bmi, and find that the modified list does not include any points where there are bilateral restrictions or that represent limited-entry markets where authority to serve a point or points should be subject to carrier-selection procedures. We will, of course, retain the 30-day notice requirement for any additional codeshare points the joint applicants may wish to add in the future, consistent with our usual practice in granting code-share authority of this type.

In addition, we are adding a clarification to our grant of authority for the joint applicants to conduct code-share operations in which British Airways would place its code on American flights between British Airways' U.S. gateways and other points, to underscore the fact that British Airways may carry local traffic, under its code, over these segments only to the extent provided for in the U.S.-U.K. Air Services Agreement."

Since American has not yet conducted safety audits of British Airways Plc's affiliates British Airways CitiExpress Limited and British Airways CitiExpress (Isle of Man) Limited, we will limit the authority of those affiliates to carrying, in foreign air transportation, codeshare traffic of British Airways Plc only. We will defer action on the application to the extent that British Airways CitiExpress Limited and British Airways CitiExpress (Isle of Man) Limited seek to carry code-share traffic of American.

By: Read C. Van de Water