Air Transport

Oneworld partners American Airlines, Iberia, Finnair, Malev Hungarian Airlines and Royal Jordanian Airlines have filed for antitrust immunity with US regulators.

In a statement the airlines, together with three of Oneworld’s European partners, and American Airlines, have jointly filed with the US Department of Transportation for antitrust immunity from the end of March next year.

“The application seeks to allow co-operation among the five airlines in a wide variety of operational areas,” the airlines say, including codesharing, route and schedule planning, pricing and yield management and revenue allocation.

“The proposal will significantly improve customer choice and convenience, produce important operating efficiencies that provide greater value to passengers and shippers, and increase competition with other alliances in thousands of city-pair markets,” they argue.

Flightglobal.com's sister premium title, Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), reported last month American was in discussions with Spanish carrier Iberia over a possible antitrust immunity application, following the landmark European Union-USA open skies deal.

Six members of rival alliance, SkyTeam, have already filed a new application for antitrust immunity, believing it might this time secure a positive ruling from the DOT in light of the open skies deal.

“The combined market shares of Royal Jordanian and the other joint applicants are comparable or well below the transatlantic market shares of immunised members of the competing Star and SkyTeam alliances,” Royal Jordanian notes in its statement.

The Oneworld alliance also comprises British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, LAN and Qantas.

American and British Airways have previously launched high profile bids to secure antitrust immunity, but have baulked at conditions attached to securing approval.