EU–US Open Skies Agreement

Under the agreement, London Heathrow was opened to full competition. This ended the exclusive right granted for only two US airlines and two UK airlines (established under Bermuda II Agreement in 1977, which remains in force for UK overseas territories' traffic rights to the US) to fly transatlantic services out of Heathrow. These four airlines were British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, and American Airlines.

This right also exists for third-country carriers with incumbent fifth freedom rights to carry passengers between Heathrow and the United States. These rights were previously exercised by Air New Zealand (between Los Angeles and Heathrow), Air India (between New York-JFK and London Heathrow), and Kuwait Airways (also between New York-JFK and London Heathrow). El Al also had such rights but chose not to use them, and Iran Air technically also had similar rights, but is prohibited from flying to the US due to US government economic sanctions against Iran.

Delta Air Lines began services to Heathrow from Atlanta, New York–JFK,^[4] Boston, Detroit and Seattle/Tacoma in 2008. Other airlines, such as Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and US Airways^[5] also began services to Heathrow, but have since ceased independent operations under these brand names, following their respective mergers with Delta, United, and American.

Nevertheless, expansion of transatlantic flights to or from Heathrow continue to be limited by lack of runway capacity (currently its two runways operate at over 98 percent capacity), government limits (especially when expansion plans to build a third runway and a sixth terminal were cancelled on 12 May 2010, by the new coalition government^[6]), and the fact that many take-off slots are owned by incumbent airlines (IAG's airlines, including British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia, account for 54% of slots^[7]).

There is little consensus about whether increased transatlantic competition will have any effect on fares. Some believe the market is already highly competitive. Other sources have been predicting radical changes, such as €10 flights.^[8]

There have been a number of new entrants that have come into the market in recent years, who have adapted the model of the short-haul low-cost airlines to the transatlantic route. Initially in 2007, Ryanair announced that it was planning to start a new airline (RyanAtlantic) that would operate long-haul flights between Europe and the United States but that project was cancelled. However, in 2014 Norwegian Air Shuttle announced it would start low-cost flights to the US from the Republic of Ireland and later the UK, in part made possible by new wide-body and narrow-body aircraft with increased fuel efficiency and range.^[9] Its Irish and then its new UK subsidiaries applied for US permission to operate these routes, which was met with resistance in the US.^[10][11] Eventually, after the European Commission said it would initiate arbitration procedures under the Agreement,^[12] the US granted the Norwegian subsidiaries rights to fly to the US.^[13][14] Other long-haul low-cost airlines, such as LEVEL, Primera Air and Wow Air, have since entered the market, however the latter two have since ceased operation.

There was some debate as to what consequences the UK leaving the EU (Brexit) in 2020 would have on UK and United States airlines flying between the UK and United States.^[15] Both the EU and the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, have since confirmed it was likely the UK would leave the EU-US Open Skies Agreement.^[16][17] It has subsequently emerged that the UK has initiated negotiations with the US on a future US-UK Air Transport Agreement.^[18]

In November 2018, the UK concluded an individual open sky agreement with the US that will supersede the EU agreement post-Brexit.^[19]