American Airlines and British Airways won tentative US government anti-trust approval  to cooperate closely with each other on routes and pricing.  Iberia Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian are also a part of this package.  The one caveat from the Department of Transportation is that the “partnership” yield 4 slot pairs at London Heathrow airport to other airline(s) that might provide service between Heathrow and the United States.

This partnership is still contingent upon EU approval but I suspect the EU will grant it as well. 

Is this good for the consumer?  Well, in the long run I suspect so.  There is plenty of competition between the US and Europe in general and frankly I suspect travel to London Heathrow hasn’t been this competitive ever already.   In this case, I think we’ll see some capacity reduction between AA and BA on those US-London flights and that might well be justified.  There may be a few non-stop routes that see fares rise some but overall the general population of the US and the UK will likely find fares pretty reasonable or even unchanged in most respects. 

This will be a huge plus for OneWorld members in that they’ll be able to find better coordinated schedules for a variety of destinations throughout Europe and the US.  And it should put OneWorld on much more equal footing with both the StarAlliance and Sky Team. 

Of course, Richard Branson finds it all outrageous but, then, if you follow Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic, you knew that he would already, didn’t you.  (I do think Richard Branson has finally cried wolf one too many times and no longer gets the credibility he might once have had.  One thing is sure, it’s time for VA to start looking for a partnership.)

Both BA and AA might moan and grown over giving up 4 slot pairs at Heathrow but both know that 1) those pairs will yield a tidy sum in a sale and 2) they’ll still have plenty of maneuvering room to make lots of money. 

I doubt very much either airlines’ unions will be happy about this though.  AA pilots will worry about a reduction of flying on their part which, in my opinion, is only a worry if they continue to fight new ultra-long haul services that AA could use their aircraft on.  This is a real concern given this agreement’s potential to free up 777 aircraft to fly to new destinations. 

The real win for OneWorld will be gaining anti-trust immunity with JAL for trans-Pacific services.  With that agreement and this one, OneWorld gets the opportunity to compete with the other two alliances on pretty good footing and they haven’t had that in quite a while.  Both agreements would also make it more attractive for other airlines to join OneWorld now. 

I would not be surprised if this development doesn’t suddenly make it a bit more attractive for OneWorld to approach US Airways about joining.  US Airways would make for a very complimentary addition to OneWorld and it would allow them to leave an alliance where they are quite literally relegated to secondary status on all fronts.  In OneWorld, US Airways could offer good domestic service to the other partners and cooperate well on both trans-Pacific as well as trans-Atlantic services.

Filed under: Airlines Alliances by ajax