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02/26/2018

American and Qantas File Application to Form Joint Business

American Airlines and Qantas have filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seeking approval to form a joint business to better serve customers flying between North America and Australia and New Zealand.

The proposed joint business will significantly improve service, stimulate demand and unlock more than $300 million annually in consumer benefits that are not achievable through any other form of cooperation, including:

  • Up to $221 million in value from expanding codesharing between American and Qantas – opening more connections to more destinations.
  • Up to $89 million in value by offering a wider range of fare classes across each other’s networks, including lower fares and discounts. 

The joint business will also give American and Qantas the opportunity to launch additional routes between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand, including new flights to city pairs currently not served by either carrier.

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An expanded relationship will encourage significant improvements in the overall customer experience, including additional frequent flyer benefits and investments in lounges, baggage systems and other infrastructure designed to better serve the carriers’ joint customers.

All these benefits will stimulate significant demand for new travel – generating up to 180,000 new trips between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand every year.

Critically, if the joint business is not approved, American and Qantas will have no choice but to further reduce codesharing on their networks. This will jeopardize the number of services and routes each carrier flies between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand.

For example, Qantas may be forced to reduce the frequency of, downgauge or potentially cancel its A380 service between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth, and American may further reduce its services between Los Angeles and Sydney and Auckland. These routes rely on codeshare support from each airline’s feeder network via their respective hub cities to be economically viable.

American and Qantas look forward to working together to deliver new routes, a more seamless travel experience and greater access to lower fares under a joint business.

Download the joint application of American Airlines and Qantas Airways.

About American Airlines Group
American Airlines and American Eagle offer an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries. American has hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. American is a founding member of the oneworld® alliance, whose members serve more than 1,000 destinations with about 14,250 daily flights to over 150 countries. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL. In 2015, its stock joined the S&P 500 index. Connect with American on Twitter @AmericanAir and at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.

About Qantas
Qantas is Australia’s largest domestic and international airline connecting Australians to the world. It is widely regarded as one of the world's most respected full-service airlines and one of the strongest brands in Australia, with an outstanding reputation for excellence in safety, customer service, operational efficiency and technical innovation. The Qantas network spans 46 countries across Australia, Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, Europe and Africa and almost flies to 60 destinations throughout Australia. The U.S. is one of Qantas’ most popular destinations routes, with its first Trans-Pacific flight taking place in 1954 to San Francisco. Qantas offers more non-stop flights per week between the U.S. and Australia than any other airline with direct flights from Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu and Vancouver, and more than 120 codeshare city pairs across the U.S., Canada and Mexico from Qantas gateways.

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