Gordon Werner

Tuesday January 22, 1:12 pm Eastern Time

KLM, British Airways Strike Temporary Deal for Mideast Flights

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- The Dutch airline KLM said Tuesday it struck a short-term deal with British Airways for flights to the Middle East in a bid to cut costs.

The arrangement was deemed necessary to manage the downturn in passenger traffic following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The airlines will share networks to the region for a period of six months, starting March 31.

KLM will suspend flights from Amsterdam to Muscat, Oman, while British Airways will increase its schedule from six times a week to a daily operation.

Meanwhile, the British airline will suspend its four flights per week between Heathrow and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. KLM will continue with its four weekly flights from Amsterdam.

KLM and British Airways will offer three daily services to and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with British Airways operating two flights from London Heathrow and KLM offering one from Amsterdam.

The airlines said they will reintroduce the suspended services "when market conditions sufficiently improve."

A KLM spokesman declined to discuss the anticipated savings from the arrangement.

Passengers can earn frequent flyer credits on either airline on the shared routes.

The deal came three months after lengthy negotiations collapsed to merge the two airlines. But KLM said the cooperation on Mideast routes was not a prelude to reviving merger talks.

Travelin' Man

Next stop, merger?

CAL 757-300

Probably not, T-Man. If BA-AA goes through the likelihood of KL and BA merging is nill. The wild card is if the deal falls through. Then BA-KL becomes a reality, bringing CO and NW into the alliance. That would probably get less resistance from antitrust watchdogs because there would be three (UA-Star, AA-One World, BA/KL/NW/CO-Wings) competitors in the LHR market. I would love to see that match, but the Dutch are too proud to see their flag carrier disappear.