Air Routes Opening in 2008

I know NWA is already preparing to take advantage of this. They have already scheduled direct flights from MSP to London, Paris, Dusseldorf and Brussels. The introductory fare on the MSP - Paris flight is around $800 incl. taxes and fees.

Can you be a bit more specific? What air routes/airlines are you talking about? Leaving from where?

The new “Open Skies” pact will go active in March 2008, paving the way for more new trans-Atlantic routes (U.S. - Europe)

Most of the time you will find good deals for the March period just after the first of the year. But unless you know there are new routes opening up that you would be interested in, it's hard to check on prices. I'd check the websites of whatever airlines you are interested in to see what they might be offering. There's no telling when new routes might open from any given airport.

The Bermuda II agreement limiting the number of carriers on the JFK-LHR-JFK route has been abolished. That is all that has been affected. Apart from that carriers were free to fly between the US and UK provided they had 'slots' at the airports.

The main winner of the ending od Bermuda II was bmi. They plan to introduce a scheduled service between LHR and JFK. This was proposed for 2008, however the company decided that Heathrow was not in good enough condition either from the point of view of length of queues caused by lack of staff at Hethrow, baggage handling services, the filthy state of Terminal 3 and lack of cleaning staff throughout at LHR etc. etc. etc. So the LHR-JFK schedule has been put back until 2009 in order to let LHR get it's house in order.

Until then the traditional big four carriers on that route ( AA UA VS BA ) still have the monopoly.

Airlines can and will continue to fly from other US airports into other UK airports if the route is financially viable.

That's not the full story. There are more facts.

Open Skies permits any European or US airline to fly revenue flights between any city in EU to any city in the US, or the reverse. As an example, British Airways is targeting for Paris-New York and Amsterdam-New York nonstop flights, Air France has also indicated intention to fly from Heathrow to the US.

The US will also be permitted to fly revenue flights between EU countries - so you could book a United flight from London to Rome if the route materialized.

Open Skies does away with the specific US gateway city rules. The Bermuda II agreement's limitation on only 2 US and 2 UK airlines flying Heathrow-US flights will be gone. Slots are still at a premium but in addition to the airlines mentioned, both Continental and Northwest intend to base at least some operations from Heathrow and Virgin Atlantic intends a number of non-traditional routes.

I was on hold with Delta Airlines yesterday, and their recorded on hold message mentioned that Delta would be flying to more destinations from JFK next year (pending approval). It mentioned, JFK to Nairobi and Malaga (and many others). The message also said that they were working on flying from Atlanta to Amsterdam as well. Don't know if this is related to this discussion but thought I would put it out there anyway.