American Airlines announced yesterday that they will offer nonstop daily services between their hub in Dallas-Fort Worth and Madrid come May of next year. Gerard Arpey, the Chief Executive of American Airlines, has linked the new flights, believing that the regulators of the United States will give approval for an antitrust immunity for a deal between Iberia, British Airways, and themselves, where they will jointly set schedules and prices for transatlantic services.

American Airlines is arguing that they should be approved for antitrust immunity since 2 other carrier groups have authority similar to that in order to work together with transatlantic operations. Federal regulators haven’t set a timetable to act on the request from the 3 airlines, but Arpey says that he is confident about winning their approval during the coming week.

Once they receive approval, they earnestly believe and hope that it will become the first of various opportunities to expand and enhance connections between Europe and the United States, providing their customers with further access to the world, Arpey continued. The approval will also benefit the community of Dallas-Fort Worth, he added.

American Airlines says that they will start the new service on May 1^st, with their Boeing 767-300 that seats 225 passengers and has separate first-class and coach cabins. Madrid will then become the 34^th city of another country to be served by the group, which includes American Eagle, a subsidiary, from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. American Airlines also operates a single nonstop daily service each from New York to Barcelona, as well as Miami to Madrid.

Visit www.aa.com to find out more about the carrier.