A plan by American Airlines, British Airways and other carriers to work more closely together coordinating schedules and sharing revenue on trans-Atlantic flights should win approval, the US government said on Saturday.
However, to protect competition, the joint venture must make four pairs of takeoff and landing slots available to competitors for new service between the US and London’s Heathrow Airport, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) said.
There has been a surge over the last few years of US carriers seeking joint ventures with foreign airlines to share costs and revenue on certain flights, regardless of which company owns or flies the aircraft. Those tie-ups could affect fares.
The US Department of Justice has said that allowing the American-British Airways venture could cause fares to rise up to 15 percent on some trans-Atlantic routes. A final decision by the DOT on the carriers’ antitrust immunity application will follow a 60-day public comment period.
Despite the antitrust concerns, the DOT said it believed allowing the deal between American, British Airways, Iberia Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian Airlines would give travelers and shippers with lower fares on more routes, increased services, better schedules and reduced travel and connection times.
It would also create competition with other carrier alliances.
Delta Air Lines Inc, the world’s biggest airline, and Air France-KLM already have antitrust immunity as part of their trans-Atlantic joint venture.
Joint ventures differ from codesharing agreements where one airline bears all the costs, but another might get a share of the revenue for booking a customer on a flight.
American said in a statement on Saturday it was pleased with the decision, though it didn’t specifically address the conditions the DOT said it would require. American said it would respond in more detail later. It added that it was continuing discussions with European regulators.
The American plan could harm competition on select routes between the US and Heathrow, where the availability of takeoff and landing slots is limited, the DOT said. That’s why the DOT is requiring some of the carriers’ slots be given up.
A slot is an interval of time during which an airline can takeoff or land its aircraft at an airport.
The DOT would also require changes to the pact to ensure capacity growth and require the carriers to submit traffic data and implement the proposed alliance within 18 months of a final decision.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales