A House Judiciary subcommittee is tentatively scheduling a hearing on airline antitrust immunity issues next month, and Virgin Group head Richard Branson has agreed to testify about his concerns over the proposed American/British Airways deal.

While the subcommittee on competition policy has not listed the date of the hearing, it apparently told Virgin it will be Sept. 16. No other potential witnesses are known, but there will likely be other industry executives as well as regulators. This is actually the subcommittee’s second attempt at such a hearing — it previously wanted to hold it before the August recess, but ran into scheduling problems. Now, its aim is to hold the hearing before the U.S. Transportation Dept. rules on the AA/BA ATI application at the end of October.

Sources believe the hearing will have two aims. It will firstly examine the broader ATI issue, including jurisdiction debates that have arisen between DOT and the Justice Dept. Then, it will specifically address the proposal for ATI between American, BA and Iberia.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee may also be looking at holding a hearing on airline ATI issues, with a similar agenda. Like its House counterpart, the Senate subcommittee had originally wanted to hold this hearing before the August recess. For more background on the congressional debates over ATI, see the Aviation DAILY blog at www.aviationweek.com/wings.

Photo: Architect of the Capitol