American Airlines sides with US DOT in Delta-Aeromexico JV spat

American Airlines has spoken out against Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico’s opposition to a US Department of Transportation (DOT) ruling that would force the two carriers to unwind their seven-year collaboration. Fort Worth-based American told the DOT in a 23 February filing that the US government is within its rights to withdraw antitrust immunity covering the Delta-Aeromexico partnership due to the Mexican government’s violation of the Open Skies treaty between the countries. Mexico has in recent months reduced capacity at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International airport, the capital city’s busiest, in favour of the new but more-distant Felipe Angeles International airport. Cargo traffic has also been banished to Felipe Angeles. The shift has angered airlines and international airline lobby groups like IATA. The US government maintains that the moves violate the US-Mexico Open Skies agreement. On those grounds, the DOT decided on 26 January not to renew the deal’s antitrust immunity, and required that the carriers end their partnership by 26 October. That “effectively means that there has not been a functioning Open Skies agreement between the United States and Mexico, and therefore the department’s main prerequisite for a grant of [antitrust immunity] is absent”, American writes. “Open Skies agreements have always been a regulatory prerequisite for [antitrust immunity], and the department has routinely refused [immunity] where an Open Skies agreement is absent,” American writes. “The [order] stays true to the department’s longstanding policy on Open Skies. This policy has facilitated significant cooperation between international carriers that has greatly expanded travel, benefiting consumers.” “A departure from this rule would undermine decades of the department’s efforts to encourage foreign governments to uphold transparency and free and fair competition in the public interest,” American adds.<br/>