Branson campaigns against BA merger

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Sir Richard said the union between BA and AA would lead to price-fixing and force travel agents to put business their way.

He is launching a campaign against the deal, which would involve a combined route network serving 443 destinations in 106 countries with 6,200 daily departures. The slogan 'No Way BA/AA' will be painted on the side of his company's planes.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme ahead of the campaign launch on the outskirts of Heathrow Airport, Sir Richard said he expected regulators to reject the merger.

"The competition authorities listened to us twice before and rejected the idea of BA and AA working effectively as one airline because they believed it to be anti-competitive," Sir Richard said.

"We believe nothing has changed, and we are going to wage a major battle to try to stop the two biggest carriers in the world from effectively working as one carrier, being able to sit down behind closed doors and fix prices and, we believe, damage the smaller competitors on the routes."

He added: "The market competitor, massively, is BA. If you then put American Airlines on top you are talking about 65% of the market. You then are left with really two competitors to compete with them: Virgin and United.

"And the danger is that BA and American together will be able to go into travel agents and say, 'Look, we have 65% of the market, and 65% of your business is coming our way. Next year we want you to make it 68%, the year after that we want you to make it 71%."

Similar merger proposals failed in 1997 and 2001.

But BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the new deal, which also involves Spanish carrier Iberia, would be good for passengers and good for the aviation industry. And he told the programme the industry had moved on since the introduction of the 'open skies' agreement, freeing up transatlantic routes.