The European Commission has just recently told Iberia, British Airways, and American Airlines that they may have to give up take off and landing slots to press ahead with the transatlantic tie up. Despite this, British Airways says that it is ready to refute antitrust concerns.

The reports suggest that the European Commission said an agreement between all three groups would likely result in appreciable competitive harm to seven Europe and United States transatlantic routes. The European Commission regulators went on to say that the envisages issued a decision finding that the series of agreements signed has been in breach of a number of competition laws. They went on to say that a remedy to this fault could be the transfer of airport slots to rival airlines.

However, British Airways says that the three way tie up would not dominate transatlantic markets. The airline points out that the European Union’s review is no different to ongoing probes of the rival Star grouping, which includes Air France and Lufthansa.

The three carriers had originally revealed back on August 14^th of last year that they had signed an agreement to cooperate on flights between North America and Europe. This was meant to help the airlines overcome rising fuel costs and the big fall in demand.

British Airways did finish up by saying that the opening up of Heathrow to new entrants on United States routes by way of this Open Skies treaty should not mean that slots have to be given up to rival airlines. The carrier also cited growing capacity at Madrid airport as encouraging competition from the Spanish capital.