American and BA “exploring” co-location at JFK

American Airlines has made a raft of announcements concerning its presence in New York, including the possibility of co-locating operations with BA at JFK’s Terminal 8. The US carrier says it is currently “evaluating a proposal by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to develop an expansion of the new state-of-the-art $1.3 billion international Terminal 8 to allow the airlines to co-locate their operations”. The move would enable BA passengers to connect more easily onto AA’s network out of JFK, and the announcement is significant as it comes ahead of the decision on anti-trust immunity between BA, AA and Iberia, which are seeking to form a transatlantic joint venture similar to the Air France-KLM / Delta agreement. BA is currently located in Terminal 7 at JFK. Among the other announcements made by AA today (March 31) include an agreement with Jet Blue to interline services in non-overlapping markets at New York and Boston, allowing Jet Blue customers to connect onto 12 international AA destinations from the two airports, and AA passengers to connect onto 18 domestic routes served by Jet Blue. AA says it will also add 13 new routes at New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports this year, served by a mixture of AA mainline operations and its regional affiliate American Eagle. The carrier is due to launch a daily service between JFK and Manchester in May (see online news September 17, 2009). Finally AA says it plans improvements to facilities at LaGuardia airport, including the refurbishment of its Admirals Club executive lounges, and the renovation of the interiors of Concourse D, followed by similar works at Concourse C, at a total cost of US$30 million. For more information visit aa.com. Report by Mark Caswell