SOUTH NORWALK, Conn., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin Atlantic, one of the world's leading long-haul airlines, today asked U.S. regulators in a regulatory filing to act on hypocritical comments made by the head of American Airlines about what constitutes dominance in aviation markets.

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Commenting on Delta's plans to persuade Japanese airline JAL to switch to SkyTeam, the CEO of American Airlines, Gerard Arpey, told his managers that Delta's "extensive presence" at Tokyo's Narita Airport would make it difficult for Delta to obtain antitrust immunity from the Department of Transportation for the carrier's planned joint venture with JAL.

Delta and JAL together would have lower market shares between the U.S. and Narita than BA/AA would have between the U.S. and Heathrow.

Mr. Arpey also told his managers that American Airlines would raise strong regulatory objections to Delta and JAL's collaboration and expressly said that that "if JAL were to change horses (from Oneworld), we would certainly argue that they might not be allowed to even code-share, let alone have immunity with the dominant carrier in Narita."

American has vowed to fight the linkup between two of the largest players in the U.S.-Japan market on competition grounds, arguing that the carriers' high combined market shares and large slot holdings at Narita (a severely constrained airport like London Heathrow) would pose a major threat to competition.