UK airlines Virgin Atlantic and bmi are looking to form partnerships with American airlines in order to compete with British Airways on transatlantic routes.
The news comes in the wake of the Open Skies deal between the EU and US that was signed earlier this year (see EU and US finally ink Open Skies agreement).
As a result, transatlantic airspace has been liberalised and long-haul airlines are looking to take advantage of new rules that will allow them to fly more routes from Britain to America.
The Times reports that bmi has applied to the US Department of Transportation for permission to form a code share with United Airlines, which would mean it could put its passengers on United flights between London and major US hubs such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Virgin Atlantic has an existing code share agreement with Continental Airlines and is looking to extend the partnership to include flights to Chicago.
The deals will be valuable to bmi and Virgin as the airlines will gain easier access to major transatlantic routes that are traditionally difficult to break into.
BA has a code share deal with American Airlines, the world’s largest airline in terms of fleet size and passenger miles.
