Brussels, 11/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the alliance between the airline companies, British Airways (BA), Iberia and GB Airways, a franchisee of BA, and has granted exemption to the rules in force for six years. The partners have in fact proposed commitments likely to settle competition problems noted on certain connections where parties involved were in a position of strength. The alliance was notified on 19 July 2002 by the parties that wanted to create synergies between their respective networks, in terms of pricing, timetables and capacity. The analysis showed that networks were complementary but also allowed a number of links between London and Spain to be listed (especially between London and Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Seville and Valencia) on which, by pooling their resources, the national Spanish company, BA and its franchisee company would control around 50-100% of the market. Such a situation is above all likely to entail a price rise. In order to resolve such problems, the parties undertook to free a sufficient number of slots for take-off and landing in London-Gatwick and Madrid and to provide slots for a daily London-Gatwich/Bilbao flight. The parties also offered to release the slots required for a daily flight from Gatwick to Seville and Valencia.