During the carrier's second-quarter earnings call in June, American Airlines management expressed confidence that the U.S. Department of Transportation would approve by Oct. 31 its application to launch an antitrust-immune joint venture with British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Royal Jordanian. With an emboldened U.S. Justice Department, an ongoing European Commission review and just two days until that deadline, the carrier has toned down its optimistic outlook on timing, though not its confidence in the likelihood of approval.
Shying away from the hope that final approval will come by the end of this month, American CEO Gerard Arpey during the carrier's third-quarter earnings call last week said, "We are really not in a position to put a stake in the ground in terms of the timing because we are dealing both with the U.S. government and of course with the EU, but I think at this stage we are being responsive to all of the governmental parties."
The European Commission's competition directorate earlier this month expressed objections to the proposed joint venture
(BTNonline, Oct. 8), and Arpey last week said the immunity-seeking Oneworld partners "are progressing through the review process with the European Union, and we look forward to demonstrating the public benefits of our plans."
It wouldn't be the first time this year government review delayed the immunity process. Following tentative approval in April for Continental Airlines to join the Star Alliance as an antitrust-immune member, DOT overshot its May 31 deadline for final approval by more than a month amid heightened influence from the U.S. Justice Department
(BTNonline, July 27).
Continental this week officially joined Star, and officials said they now would begin working on its approved joint venture with Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines, through which those carriers will jointly plan and sell transatlantic services. The arrangement is similar to the already operating joint venture between Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM.
The Oneworld alliance is the last to gain such approvals, but American's Arpey is determined to join the North Atlantic's heightened competitive landscape. "I think in the unlikely event that we would not get a level playing field here, our goal will be to persevere and make the case and eventually prevail, because the facts are on our side, and it would be ridiculous to leave several airlines out of an immunized partnership across the North Atlantic when everybody else is immunized," Arpey said. "Our strategy is to succeed in this round of discussions with the governments."