There's a war brewing between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. They've never been the best of buds, in fact BA has continually tried to put Virgin Atlantic out of business.

Well, Virgin Atlantic is not going anywhere, but they take issue with BA's latest plans to merge with Iberia and have an increased partnership with American Airlines.

Richard Branson has gone so far as to put "No BA/AA Alliance" on the side of its airplanes. Branson believes that the alliance will give British Airways unfair monopolistic control of transatlantic air travel.

Virgin Atlantic is lodging an official protest with the Civil Aviation authorities in Europe and America.

I'm a BA apologist... I always fly British Airways because their prices are usually the lowest. It's be nice if this war between VA and BA meant lower prices for consumers. But, sadly, transatlantic travel seems to be only getting more expensive; especially as fuel costs rise along with the tumbling economies of the world.

Well, another one has bitten the dust. On August 30th, Zoom Airlines announced it was shutting down operations and filing for bankruptcy. It has been unable to acquire operating capitol and credit funding to stay in operations.

The collapse of Zoom Airlines, a player in the low-cost transatlantic travel market, left 40,000 people stranded all over the world, with no way to get their money refunded.

It's safe to say, that people were not happy with these developments.

It appears, the optimism of the Open Skies deal is proving to be too optimistic. It is becoming increasingly apparent, that in today's economic climate, there is only room for the big players in transatlantic travel. They have deeper pockets and can sustain more losses than newer players.

It's a shame, I was looking forward to watching a discount upstart give giants like British Airways a run for their money.

The big news in transatlantic travel this week was the announcement that British Airways and Iberia Air are going to merge.

This is great news for the frequent transatlantic traveller. It will allow the two airlines to combine costs, partner on profitable routes and compete against other airlines on transatlantic fares.

Instead of focusing on competing with each other, they can now combine forces to compete with other more powerful European airlines. Competition is good in the airline business and consolidation will, in the end, benefit the consumer.

The merger will take years before the companies are fully integrated. And both airlines will keep their separate identities. They will mostly work together on backend operations such as route planning, back office operations, fare structures and placing large plane orders.

It's certainly and exciting for transatlantic airlines. This couple with the Open Skies Agreement will mean better travel for all transatlantic passengers.

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.

Airlines are dropping like flies right now due to the troubled economies of the world along with high oil prices. Silverjet is the latest victim to fall.

Silverjet was a business class only airline that sought to lower the cost of transatlantic air travel, while still providing the comforts of business class. It was popular at first and had good growth prospects.

Last week, Silverjet called in the receivers and ceased operations. It said that a high debt coupled with rising oil prices and a decline in business travel due to tough economic times, forced a the airline to fold, leaving nearly 10,000 travelers stranded.

The idea of a transatlantic only airline is not a flawed idea. Where they failed was catering to only business class. I think it's time for a discount transatlantic airline a la Southwest that's focused on the lowest possible prices.

The last time I flew British Airways to London, I noticed all the ways they could be saving money and thus providing a cheaper ticket. Most of their 'luxuries' aren't really luxuries and certainly aren't worth the money.

They provide free booze and drink, a free dinner, socks, headphone, eye cover, blanket, pillow and on demand entertainment. All this is included in the price of your ticket. They could easily charge for all these things. I don't drink booze, the food is always inedible and I can bring my own headphones. It's a total waste of resources.

Silverjet should have gone the discount route and offered basically what would amount to a bus in the sky. That would have been a success. And I hope someone steps up soon to give the transatlantic airlines a run for their money. With the recent US-EU open skies agreement, it will be easier for a new transatlantic airline to pop up and give the big players a run for their money.

Can you imagine if Easyjet had a $10 fare to Chicago from London. It would change everything.

The Canada based airline, Zoom announced recently that it was increasing the number of it's transatlantic flights. They're expecting a busy summer travel season between Canada and the United Kingdom this year and are pretty confident in their ability to fill the planes.

It will be adding flights between Cardiff, Wales and Toronto, Ontario. It will also introduce a weekly flight between Cardiff, Wales and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Zoom Airlines has built a strong reputation as one of the cheapest airlines to fly transatlantic with. They're a budget airline but without being a cattle hauler like US airline Southwest. They include a hot meal with the ticket as well as free beverages.

Flyzoom is taking advantage of the recent liberalization in US and Europe transatlantic flights thanks to the Open Skies Agreement. The airline Zoom is also expected to begin offering flights to and from the continental United States, something that will give some competition to the big players. Currently Zoom Airways has a small fleet of five planes that fly to 15 destinations with their headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.

Best of luck to them. I hope they give British Airways their run for the money.