THE BEST LAID PLANS US regulators nix Qantas American Airlines deal

Posted on 11/21/2016 | About Уса, Russia

Plans by Qantas and America Airlines to jointly operate flights between the US Australia and New Zealand have been thwarted by US regulators on competition concerns. The carriers' application for a joint venture with antitrust immunity has been pending since June 2015.

"The Department is tentatively concluding that the proposed alliance expansion would harm competition in the US-Australasia market, in particular in the large US-Australia market," Jenny Rosenberg, the DOT's acting assistant secretary for aviation wrote in Friday's order. “Consumers would have few remaining competitive options because the US-Australia/New Zealand markets are not well served by alternative routings over third countries,” the department said in a statement.Qantas and American have 14 days to reply.The DOT is proposing denial of an American-Qantas joint venture even though it has previously granted antitrust immunity to ventures between Delta and Virgin Australia and between United and Air New Zealand.However, the department noted that those partnerships control just 19% and 18% of the relevant aviation marketplace, respectively.According to the DOT, a Qantas-American joint venture which would set pricing for seats sold in the US, would account for about 60 percent of capacity between the US and Australia.