Public consultation into airline agreement

April 01, 2020 / By mobanmarket

Public consultation into airline agreement

Commission to look into proposed deal between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia.

The European Commission today announced it was launching a public consultation into concessions offered by British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia, in order to gain regulatory approval for a co-operation agreement among the three airlines.

The airlines, which announced their plans for a tie-up in August 2008, have offered to divest landing and take-off slots for routes between London and New York, Boston, Dallas and Miami.

The Commission launched an antitrust investigation into the airlines last year, because of concerns that the agreement could damage competition.

The Commission said today that it was putting the companies’ offer out for public consultation, known technically as ‘market testing’, a step it only takes when it belives that proposed concessions stand a serious chance of resolving competition concerns.

The three airlines (all members of the OneWorld alliance) want to be allowed to jointly manage schedules, capacity and pricing, as well as share revenues on routes between North America and Europe.

The companies claim they need to co-operate more closely to compete with airlines in the rival Star Alliance and SkyTeam groupings. They have claimed that these rival groups already enjoy “broad antitrust immunity”.

“The Commission believes at this stage that the commitments address its competition concerns,” a spokesperson for Joaquín Almunia, the European commissioner for competition, said.

Other companies will have one month to comment on the proposed concessions, before the Commission takes a final decision on whether to accept them and close its investigation.

The Commission is also investigating a similar agreement drawn up by Air Canada, Continental Airlines, Lufthansa and United Airlines (all members of the Star Alliance).