British Airways got an approval from the US department of transportation to operate flights from anywhere in the EU to the country. However, the flights will start flying from March next year—after the open skies pact comes into force to its full extent.

According to Business Travel News Online, the approval will be used to establishing direct business-class-only flights flying to destinations such as New York from major cities including Frankfurt, Milan and Paris. This will establish a strong missing link from European cities to US cities, and travellers can have more choice in schedule and flight services. Very recently, due to some technical problem, a flight from Liverpool airport to New York was cancelled, though Liverpool airport authorities are saying that would restore the flights shortly. In such situation, new flights from various cities of Europe would fill the much-felt drought of flights.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways told the BritishAmerican Business forum in New York last week that they are looking extremely seriously at the launch of new services from the US to major business centres in continental Europe.

Earlier this year, Virgin Atlantic announced that the company is intended to start operating business-class-only flights. Although there was no mention of a date for launching the operation, yet it is thought that the operation will start within the next 18 months.

Silverjet and Eos Airlines are the major players in the business class airline market that are already established.