Branson £3m Antitrust Campaign
If both deals are inked, Virgin claims BA and AA would have nearly half of all take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow airport.
Credit crunching, fuel crisis laden merger talk has Branson reaching for the back pocket to pull out an anti-trust campaign. His beef is with the British Airways management who see this current turmoil as a chance to secure more landing slots at its self appointed base in London Heathrow, by merging with AA and buying out Iberia
Just goes to show that turbulent times can affect market conditions not only in the short term, but does also have the effect of clearing away smaller competition from the longer term picture, like a mass cull, or ‘weeding’ as the big brands would probably not like to admit. Virgin has always, admirably championed consumer choice, over aggressive market grabbing tactics, this being the biggest thorn in BA’s side.
