Open Skies Effects

Next year, B.A. will also pioneer service between New York and London's City Airport, a tiny facility just six miles from Canary Wharf, the epicenter of the British capital's renaissance as a global money center. B.A. says it will fly planes outfitted with just 28 business-class beds.

All this Anglo-American activity is obscuring some other intriguing international developments. Here's a snapshot of what else is on the agenda.

• Lufthansa, the hugely profitable German carrier, will expand its capacity between the U.S. and Germany as a result of Open Skies. It is scrapping most of its small jet flying between the two countries in favor of larger jets with the traditional three classes of service. The fate of its leased fleet of all-business-class jets has yet to be announced.

• Conversely, Singapore Airlines is getting into the all-business-class business. This spring, the airline will convert its ultra-long-haul nonstop routes from Newark and L.A. to all-business-class operations. The 18-hour flights to Singapore on specially configured Airbus A340-500 jets will have only 100 seats. Each one is 30 inches wide—about eight inches wider than the global business-class standard—and converts to a roomy flat bed.

• Have you been waiting for your shot at the Airbus A380, the double-decked leviathan that went into service late last year? Emirates airline will begin flying the world's biggest jet between J.F.K. and Dubai in October. Emirates' first-class section is outfitted with private suites and "room service" buttons.

• The underserved market between Australia and the U.S. got its own Open Skies treaty in March, and the first new transpacific contender is expected to be V Australia, created with the help of Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson. It hopes to launch flights before the end of the year.

• More and better links between the West Coast and Europe are also on the way. Assuming that it doesn't collapse under the weight of its long-standing financial problems, Alitalia will launch nonstops between L.A. and Rome in June. S.A.S. has announced its intention to fly between San Francisco and Copenhagen. Lufthansa will connect Seattle and Frankfurt later this month, and in June, Delta will launch nonstops between Salt Lake City and Paris.

• A skyway between Silicon Valley and Bangalore, India's technology center, will debut in August. Both Air India and Kingfisher, the high-frills airline owned by India's huge UB beverage group, will have flights from San Francisco.

• Finally, even though we seem on the verge of a new Cold War with Russia, more service to Moscow is on the way: Singapore Airlines is launching nonstop flights between Houston and Moscow later this month, and American Airlines will link Moscow to its hub at Chicago's O’Hare Airport in June.

The Fine Print…

London isn't the only major city with a new airport facility. As part of its preparations for the Summer Olympic Games, the Chinese government has opened a gigantic new terminal in Beijing. The $2.7 billion project, Terminal 3, is purportedly the largest building in the world. It has about 20 percent more space than all five Heathrow terminal buildings combined.

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Joe Brancatelli writes Portfolio.com’s business travel column, Seat 2B. Brancatelli is the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer magazine and has written about travel in numerous publications.