The last couple of months have been very busy for the US Department of Transportation. This is the US body that handles requests for authorisation to fly to the US and which gives approval for airlines to work together, wither through codeshare agreements or airline alliances.

The thing that has kicked off this busy period was the signing of the Open Skies accord earlier this year. The agreement does not come into effect until the end of March 2008 but airlines are putting in their requests early to launch new services shortly after that date.

The three big airline alliances have all put in applications for so-called anti-trust immunity from the DOT for their transatlantic services. If granted, this means that the airlines can collude on schedules and pricing without fear of being prosecuted by the competition authorities. An application for nine airlines in the Star Alliance has already been approved while Skyteam and oneworld are waiting to hear about their applications.

At the same time, Virgin and Continental Airlines have put in an application to expand their codesharing across the Atlantic. There have also been applications from individual airlines for authority to run additional services between Europe and the US, including British Airways, Virgin and Zoom.

When the DOT grants these applications, as they will surely do given the Open Skies agreement, get ready for the launch of a flurry of new transatlantic services. Fares will inevitably come down. Not all these new services will last – let’s hope the low fares do.