Brazil's competition regulator Cade said Monday that a deal between LATAM Airlines, British Airways and Iberia could have a negative impact on routes between Brazil and Europe. LATAM signed joint business agreements in January to deepen its ties with American Airlines Group and IAG's British Airways and Iberia, all members of the Oneworld Alliance. If cleared by competition authorities, the agreements would help the airlines coordinate schedules and prices for flights, similar to the North Atlantic revenue-sharing agreement which already exists between IAG and American Airlines. Cade's superintendency-general said it would appeal against the deal before the top decision-making tribunal of the competition watchdog. "The superintendency believes this concentration has the potential to generate competitive problems in the market for air transportation of passengers between Brazil and Europe, especially on the routes Sao Paulo-London and Sao Paulo-Madrid," Cade said. It added that the companies already have 70 to 80% of the market between Sao Paulo and London, and 50 to 60% between Sao Paulo and Madrid. Cade said that new competitors were unlikely to enter these routes under such conditions and the existing level of competition was not sufficient to alleviate its concerns.<br/>
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The US DoT Monday said it was proposing to award American Airlines a new daily scheduled nonstop flight between Los Angeles and Beijing. The Obama administration has been considering rival applications from American and Delta to operate the flight. Delta already flies a daily nonstop route to China from Seattle, while United Continental has service from San Francisco. Delta said in a Transportation Department filing that it has a 9 percent share of the seats to Beijing - including codeshare flights - compared with 15% for American and United with 75%. American argued in a filing that Delta already holds a significant advantage over American in US-Chinese flight competition, with Delta and alliance partners, China Eastern and China Southern, serving nearly twice as much US-China traffic as American and Hainan Airlines combined. Those opposed to awarding American the flight have until Nov. 22 to file comments before the DoT makes a final decision.<br/>
American Airlines emailed its frequent-fliers Monday with a reminder about changes coming in 2017 to the company's AAdvantage frequent-flier program. The carrier also revealed a new perk for its American-branded credit cards that will help fliers clear a new elite-status spending requirement that's being introduced in 2017. Most of the changes outlined in the e-mail had already been announced this past summer. Perhaps the most notable change is that American is adding a spending requirement to earn elite status. Previously, customers could earn status simply by flying a set number of miles or flight “segments” within a calendar year. That requirement remains in place for 2017, but customers must now also spend at least $3,000 in “elite qualifying dollars” on airfares to earn American’s lowest-tier “Gold” status. EQDs are generally the same amount as airfare, minus taxes and government opposed fees. For example, a $400 ticket that included $50 in government-imposed taxes and fees would earn $350 in EQDs. Gold status is earned when a customer flies 25,000 qualifying miles (or 30 flight segments) in a calendar year. The EQD spending threshold rises to $6,000 for “Platinum” status (50,000 miles or 60 segments) and to $12,000 for “Executive Platinum” status (100,000 miles or 120 segments). American also is introducing a new tier of elite status -- “Platinum Pro” – that brings its number of status levels in line with the offerings at Delta and United. <br/>