ACCC gives initial approval to Qantas-American JBA

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted “interim authorisation”  to Qantas and American Airlines’ proposed Joint Business Agreement (JBA), which will allow the airlines to undertake a coordinated “sales and marketing campaign” in Australia and the United States.

Qantas had sought the interim approval to allow joint sales and marketing for its recently launched Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth route, but the ACCC notes that the interim approval “in no way binds the ACCC in its consideration of the substantive application for authorisation” of the JBA, which seeks to see the two airlines coordinate their trans-Pacific services between Australia/New Zealand and the US.