News
U.S. rejects expanded Qantas and American Airlines partnership
December 2nd 2016
Qantas Airways and its fellow oneworld member, American Airlines (AA) said on Tuesday that they would not contest the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) rejection of their application to expand their trans-Pacific alliance, including anti-trust immunity. Read More » The statement was a departure from previous AA statements, which had bullishly declared the carrier would file an objection to the “unprecedented” denial.
“Without anti-trust approval, Qantas and American Airlines will be severely limited in their ability to work together to grow on the trans-Pacific routes. As a consequence, each airline will need to assess their trans-Pacific networks,” Qantas said on Tuesday.
Qantas and AA submitted their application for expansion of their trans-Pacific partnership in June last year. The Australian and New Zealand regulators approved the expanded partnership and Qantas and AA have launched additional flights between Australia and the U.S. They included AA’s own daily Sydney-Los Angeles B777-300ER route and a daily B787-8 service between Auckland and Los Angeles.
The DOT disagreed with its counterparts in Canberra and Wellington about the extended partnership when it said it “would create a potentially anticompetitive environment given the scale of the resulting joint business, which would account for approximately 60% of seats between the U.S. and Australia”.
Separately, Qantas Freight will launch a weekly Hobart-Ningbo B767-300F service from 2017, Hobart’s first international service. Qantas Freight has signed an agreement with VAN Dairy milk company to transport up to 50,000 litres of fresh milk a week to China.
Executive manager Qantas Freight and Qantas Catering Group, Alison Webster, said the airline had been flying freight between Australia and Greater China for more than thirty years. It offers belly capacity on forty flights a week, including five dedicated freighter services that transport chilled meat, seafood, dairy products, fruit, vegetables and general cargo.
