Business Travel News - September 8, 2008 - (Page 14)

AVIATION American, BA, Iberia Strengthen Alliance, File For Immunity BY JAY BOEHMER American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia acknowledged in an August filing for antitrust immunity little headway in collectively working with corporate clients, though they are seeking to remedy their deficient transatlantic position with the implementation of a joint business venture agreement. Those three Oneworld carriers in August officially put those long-anticipated plans in motion, following similar moves by carriers of the competing SkyTeam and Star alliances. In its request filing with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the carriers told DOT that the Oneworld alliance “has been unable to offer integrated global corporate contracts because the lack of antitrust immunity for its members prevents them from agreeing on discounts or performance targets.” rate customers—meeting the marThe request notes large multina- ketshare targets upon which distional corporate customers in recent counts are based,” the carriers said. years “have moved away from deal- “Oneworld’s inability to coordinate ing with individual airlines and to- often leads to impossible requireward alliance contracts,” leaving ments—such as committing to proOneworld unable to bid on some vide more than 100 percent marketbusiness that immunized competi- share to the alliance. This is because tors have gained. the carriers currently set market“In fact, some corporations are share goals based on their individnow requiring alliance bids to be ual—not collective—self-interest.” from an immunized Several transatlantic Access the g r o u p i n g — t a k i n g 2008 Corporate Travel Index Star Alliance carriers Oneworld entirely out already operate with see btnonline.com/perdiem of the picture,” the reantitrust immunity, and quest notes. The filing went so far just this year DOT approved a simas to call its transatlantic alliance of- ilar structure for SkyTeam alliance fering “little more than the stapling members. of individual carrier contracts toCarriers from those alliances are gether in an alliance wrapper.” furthering their ties and deepening An approval would enable each their relationships—and American carrier “to address one of the biggest and British Airways are playing complaints it receives from corpo- catch-up. As it migrates from SkyTeam to Star, Continental this summer announced plans to build a four-way joint venture with United Airlines, Air Canada and Lufthansa, in part mimicking the immunized venture that its SkyTeam partners Delta-Northwest and Air FranceKLM are building across the Atlantic (BTNonline, June 30). The three Oneworld carriers laid out what the deal would mean for corporate clients as a “a long-overdue third option to Star and SkyTeam.” British Airways senior vice president of commercial in North America Woody Harford told BTN, “It’s a changing business model and either you get on board or you get run over. We’re trying to strengthen our alliance model, which is what everyone else is doing.” American and British Airways hope their third attempt at immu- http://btnonline.com/perdiem

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - September 8, 2008

Business Travel News - September 8, 2008
Contents
Inside Track
Profiles In Travel Management
BTN Research
Aviation
Meetings Today
Lodging
Asia/Pacific
Washington Wire

Business Travel News - September 8, 2008