British Airways (BA) has launched a new EU-US subsidiary airline which will run daily Boeing 757 flights from New York to Paris or Brussels from June.
A second aircraft will be added to the fleet later in the year and up to six are expected to be operational by the end of 2009.
The firm will be known as OpenSkies and will be managed by Dale Moss, BA's former director of worldwide sales.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: "By naming the airline OpenSkies, we're celebrating the first major step in 60 years towards a liberalised US/EU aviation market which means we can fly between any US and EU destination."
He said the launch demonstrates BA's determination to lobby for further liberalisation in the open skies market when talks between the US and EU take place later in the year.
EU transport ministers have already given the green light to an open skies accord that will come into effect at the end of March.
Last November, UK and Singapore signed an open skies agreement designed to remove all restrictions on air services between the two nations.
