Open Skies opens a little

What’s the best place to find out about British Airways’ plans for its new Open Skies operation? Why, Washington of course. BA has had to tell US regulators about its plans so it can win the formal permission to fly it will need, and the filing it made with the US Transportation Department shows that it plans its first flight from Paris – a city on its short list – and New York’s JFK. Open Skies, once dubbed Project Lauren, says that it would later link JFK with other European points such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Milan. The carrier had not specified airports earlier, and still has not detailed if it would use the older Paris Orly or the city’s newer Charles deGaulle airport. L’Avion, the French entry into the North Atlantic all-premium contest, uses Orly. Open Skies says it has won tentative IATA approval to use 'EC' as its code, but it will also operate as a code share for BA itself as BA*. To buttress its plans for premium level on-board service in its three-class Boeing 757s, Open Skies says that it will have a crew ratio of about one crewmember to 17 passengers. It’s asking for a May 1 approval from DoT so it can start up in June, in time for the summer's high season. But the DoT dockets (this one is OST-2008-0064) aren't the only place that Open Skies is talking: it's set up its own website and blog.