British Airways Plc’s OpenSkies unit will add flights to Washington and target profitability by 2013 after its parent company turned down five offers for the Paris-based carrier, Managing Director Dale Moss said in an interview.

OpenSkies will commence an all-business-class service to the US capital on May 3 after its existing route to New York logged a “good January” and filled three-quarters of seats in November and December, Moss said Sunday.

British Airways received “five decent offers” for OpenSkies as it sought outside investors following a decline in demand that caused the unit to drop a route to the US from Amsterdam.

Moss said that BA Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh ultimately opted not to sell the unit, which began flights in June 2008 using Boeing Co. 757 single-aisle planes.

“I think they’re happy with the current structure and we’re certainly happy,” Moss said after a briefing in Paris. The Washington service will offer 60 business seats and 12 flat- bed berths and should break even in its second year, he said.

OpenSkies is also weighing further expansion of its network, six months after closing the Amsterdam-New York service, which Moss said was “burning too much cash” following a 45 percent contraction in the market. The carrier had won an 18 percent share of business traffic between the two cities.

“Paris-New York will always be our signature route, but there will be others,” Moss said at the briefing. “One of the things we’ve learned from 2009 is ‘one step at a time.’”

A return to Amsterdam is one option and the carrier said on its Web site before the Washington announcement that possible routes included Paris to Boston and Chicago and Brussels, Madrid and Milan to New York, as well as the route finally chosen. (Bloomberg)