British Airways is due to launch a new transatlantic airline on June 19th called OpenSkies. The name is a reference to the new airline agreement between the US and EU, the Open Skies Agrement.

British Airways plans the airline to be an airline within an airline. It's shunning the business class only business plan of recent failures such as MaxJet and Silverjet. The planes on the new routes will feature Bussiness class, premium economy and coach. The planes will be smaller 757-200 jets.

The first route will be between Paris Orly and New York's JFK Airport. This is the first time that British Airways will run a flight that doesn't originate in the UK to the United States, a landmark idea that's part of the Open Skies Agreement. A route to Brussels in also in the workings. Future plans also include routes to Milan, Franfurt, Amsterdam and Madrid. Tickets prices will generally be cheaper than a ticket that would require a connecting flight.

BA Open Skies has a pretty snazzy website setup as well as a fun Open Skies blog.