British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Bmi are today locked in a legal battle over the rights to fly the lucrative UK to India route, with Sir Richard Branson claiming that BA charges “pretty much what it likes” on its services.
Presently, British Airways has all the rights to the UK routes to India, and had applied for all 21 new flights being made available.
According to The Times, Virgin is applying for 18 of the flights, while Bmi wants 13 of them.
BA says it needs to have all the flights in order to remain competitive with Lufthansa and Emirates, to which it has lost market share in recent years.
BA’s chief executive Rod Eddington is quoted as saying: “We have between 20 and 30 per cent market share. I do not regard that as dominant. Given the growth of the indirect carriers on the route, the competition is growing. What we need is more capacity on these routes.”
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson and Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of Bmi, will appear before the hearing today.
Virgin is expected to argue that it will be able to force fares down by offering more competition, while Bmi is aiming to offer more long-haul flights from its slots at Heathrow.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd
