21.   Lufthansa spokeswoman Karin Weber said it was too early to predict what antitrust immunity would mean for sales.

22.   One outcome could have British Airways going back to the regulators in hopes of receiving antitrust immunity for its alliance with American Airlines, company executives said.

23.   Other airline alliances already have antitrust immunity, including the Star alliance headlined by United Airlines and German carrier Lufthansa.

24.   Other airline alliances also have antitrust immunity.

25.   Several carriers, including Northwest Airlines and KLM in one combination, and United and Lufthansa, have received antitrust immunity allowing them to set prices and combine operations.

26.   Some academics have floated the idea of giving airlines antitrust immunity to coordinate scheduling.

27.   Similarly, if there was an open skies agreement between the U.S. and Spain, then we and Iberia would have antitrust immunity.

28.   Swissair said that U.S. antitrust immunity would therefore allow the carriers to cooperate more extensively on North American routes.

29.   The BA-American alliance, by contrast, requires antitrust immunity since the two want to coordinate their fares and flight frequencies.

30.   The airlines expect the antitrust immunity to be granted this summer.