BRITISH Midland has placed a £1.2bn order for four Airbus A330-200 aircraft to operate transatlantic services.
The first two A330s are scheduled for delivery in April and May 2001.
The order, which includes options for another eight A330s, is being viewed as a bid to put pressure on the UK and US governments to restart the open-skies talks which broke down at the end January.
An agreement between both sides to allow more airlines to operate transatlantic services is vital before British Midland can launch its first long-haul services.
Only British Airways, Virgin, American Airlines and United Airlines are currently allowed to fly between the US and UK.
nUSAirways is urging the US government to refuse a request from Virgin to launch flights from the UK to Chicago until the UKGovernment allows it to restart the service between Pittsburgh and London that BA abandoned last autumn.