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Bmi chairman renews calls for deregulation on transatlantic routes
Bmi chairman Sir Michael Bishop has renewed his call for a free and deregulated market on transatlantic routes in light of the recent price fixing investigations.
Speaking at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the airline’s first major European route, he urged the UK and US governments to learn lessons from 20 years of European deregulation.
“Recent events in the UK and the US highlight the importance of transparency in competition in air travel,” he said.
“The consumer will always be the loser if fares are influenced or set by any forces other than a free and deregulated market.”
British Airways and other airlines are being investigated by UK and US regulators over alleged price fixing of tickets and fuel surcharges.
BA has given its commercial director, Martin George, and head of communications, Iain Burns, leave of absence during the investigation.
Earlier this week it was also confirmed that two Americans have filed a price-fixing lawsuit against four major transatlantic carriers accusing them of using fuel surcharges to wrongfully inflate prices.
The suit was filed in New York Federal Court and charges British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines of conspiring conspired to fix passenger ticket prices, partly through the use of fuel surcharges (see earlier stories).
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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