Regional Round-Up
Qantas alliance has strings attached
February 1st 2013
There was good news and bad news for Qantas Airways when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently released a draft ruling on the Qantas-Emirates airline alliance. Read More »
It gave the nod to the carriers to cooperate on passenger and freight operations across their networks, but the bad news was the ACCC proposed halving the airlines’ request for a 10-year timeframe on the deal to five years.
The regulator is concerned about the impact of the alliance on airline competition between Australia and New Zealand. It warned that their main rivals, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia, were “unlikely to sufficiently constrain the alliance in the event that the alliance decided to reduce or limit growth in capacity”. This would result in rising fares on the trans-Tasman routes, said the ACCC.
The ACCC chairman, Rod Sims, said overall the alliance was likely to result in “material, although not substantial benefits” to Australian consumers. The regulator is expected to release its final ruling next month.
