American And Qantas Stop Codesharing, Re-File Application To Cooperate On Routes

Effective February 1st (just a few days from now), American Airlines and Qantas will stop codesharing on the LAX-SYD route.  This is part of a larger plan to re-file for a joint venture.  But, for now, it means less convenient flight opportunities for travelers.

Point Me To The Plane notes that Qantas will no longer apply their code to American’s LAX-SYD flight, effective February 1st for new ticket purchases.  Folks who already have tickets booked between now and September 30, 2017 can keep their travel plans intact.  Anybody booked for flights after that will need to be moved, assumedly to Qantas’ own LAX-SYD flights.

I can’t blame Qantas for not wanting to codeshare on a route that they now compete on, as opposed to sharing revenue across the two carriers.  Where codesharing really comes into play here are for onward travel from LAX for Qantas, where they can more seamlessly move people from their network onto the American Airlines network.

The initial result of the application for joint venture saw Qantas spin up SFO-SYD service.  New service was a plus for travelers, especially frequent travelers.  There was even a period of time where award seats between the two countries on Qantas were readily available in premium cabins.  That’s not something that happens often.  I was actually able to book an award to Sydney to try out both business and first class on Qantas (still need to finish up that first class review).

American Airlines and Qantas are in the process of re-filing their application for a joint venture.  As View From The Wing notes:

When American announced Sydney service starting in December, they did so as part of an enhanced joint venture they were seeking approval for with Qantas. Qantas didn’t have the aircraft to serve San Francisco. By turning over a Los Angeles flight to American, they shuffled aircraft and served a new U.S. market. American also added Auckland service with their Boeing 787-8, an aircraft Qantas didn’t have.

The Department of Transportation rejected American’s application to expand its antitrust-immunized joint venture with Qantas, arguing that it would harm competition, even though Australia and New Zealand authorities already signed off a year ago and although DOT allowed a joint venture between US carrier Delta and Australia’s Virgin Australia and has allowed numerous other joint ventures between US and foreign carriers like Delta and Aeromexico most recently.

What’s Next?

American and Qantas chose to wait until after the Obama administration left office to try again on the new administration.  Given the history of acceptance for agreements like this, I don’t see a reason they won’t get approval.  That being said, I was pretty sure they were going to get the last one.

American And Qantas Stop Codesharing, Re-File Application To Cooperate On Routes was published first on Pizza in Motion