Sir Richard Branson has written to the US Presidential candidates regarding the potential BA/AA merger.

Virgin founder and President of Virgin Atlantic, Sir Richard Branson, has written to US Presidential candidates, Senators Barrack Obama and John McCain, to inform them of his stance on the potential British Airways/American Airlines (BA/AA) alliance.

If it receives the go-ahead, the alliance between BA and AA will result in the two airlines sharing revenues and frequent flier information, and fixing prices and timetables, amongst other things.

Senator Obama was particularly warned over the potential alliance – one possible consequence of which could be a large number of job losses. AA employs a large number of people at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, situated in Illinois, the state represented by the Senator.

Sir Richard Branson also highlighted the fact that the airlines had tried for the alliance twice before, only for it to be rejected by the regulatory authorities. He said in his letter: “BA and AA will argue that their alliance is now acceptable because the competitive environment has changed with Open Skies accord on the UK-US routes. This is a complete red herring. Open Skies (which is only a temporary accord as it may be unwound in 2010) has not significantly increased competition on UK/London-US routes.”

The alliance would mean that both airlines have dominant market shares of the routes to destinations such as New York’s JFK airport, Boston and Miami, and, together with Iberia, would have almost 50% of London Heathrow Airport’s takeoff and landing slots.

British Airways and Iberia airlines are currently in talks regarding a full merger, which would, according to British Airways’ chief executive, Willie Walsh, be good news for customers. He said: “The aviation landscape is changing and airline consolidation is long overdue. The combined balance sheet, anticipated synergies and network fit between the airlines make a merger an attractive proposition, particularly in the current economic environment.”

Virgin plans to launch a high-profile lobbying and advertising campaign in the coming weeks to highlight its concerns.