American, Qantas Abandon Partnership Extension

American Airlines and Qantas have abandoned plans to expand their existing alliance after the US Department of Transportation last month issued a tentative denial of their application.

DOT said in the ruling that an expanded alliance “would create a potentially anticompetitive environment given the scale of the resulting joint business, which would account for approximately 60 percent of seats between the US and Australia.”

It also said that travellers would have few alternatives because the market is not well served by routes via third countries.

American cited DOT’s decision not to extend the 14 day period for the airlines to respond to the ruling as the reason, saying a response would take longer than that.

Current codeshare agreements will remain in effect the airlines said.