Iberia is seeking to join fellow oneworld members British Airways, Finnair and Japan Airlines in their joint venture. BA and JAL started an antitrust-immunised JV to coordinate Europe-Japan flights in 2012 and Finnair joined the JV in 2014. Under the JV, the airlines jointly coordinate schedules and fares and share revenue on services between the EU and Japan. Iberia joining the JV is subject to regulatory approval. JAL has applied to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to grant antitrust immunity to Iberia/JAL coordination. Iberia is set to launch 3X-weeky Madrid-Tokyo Narita flights Oct 18, with plans to increase the number of flights in the future. Iberia will operate the route with an Airbus A330-200 with an increased maximum take-off weight of 242 tonnes, allowing for nonstop services to Tokyo. <br/>
oneworld
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating a recent cabin smoke event on a Qantas-operated Airbus A380, which was traced to a mobile phone battery. The A380 was operating a flight from Sydney to Dallas-Fort Worth May 16 when the incident occurred. The Bureau says that the jet was around 3,000km west-south-west of Dallas when smoke was detected in the aircraft’s cabin. “It was subsequently determined that a mobile phone battery was the source of the smoke,” it adds. The occurrence has been classified as a serious incident by the ATSB, which is gathering more information from the operator, and plans to finish its investigation in September. <br/>