OST-1999-6528
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OST-1999-6528
American Airlines, Inc., Swissair, Swiss Air Transport Company, Ltd., and Sabena S.A. N.V.
| OST-1999-6528 - Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements | November 19, 1999 | Joint Application for Antitrust Immunity | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Index of Exhibits | |||
| Exhibit JA- 1: American/Swissair Alliance Agreement | |||
| Exhibit JA- 2: American/Sabena Alliance Agreement | |||
| Exhibit JA- 3: American/Swissair/Sabena Coordination Agreement | |||
| Exhibit JA- 4: American/Swissair/Sabena Global Network | |||
| Exhibit JA- 5: American/Swissair/Sabena Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Europe | |||
| Exhibit JA- 6: United/Lustshana/SAS Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Europe | |||
| Exhibit JA- 7: Northwest/KLM/Alitia Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Europe | |||
| Exhibit JA- 8: Other Carrier Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Europe | |||
| Exhibit JA- 9: American/Swissair/Sabena Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Switzerland and U.S. and Belgium | |||
| Exhibit JA- 10: Other Carrier Nonstop Routes Between U.S. and Switzerland and U.S. and Belgium | |||
| Exhibit JA- 11: Overlap Nonstop Routes Between American and Swissair/Sabena | |||
| Exhibit JA- 12: Top 25 European Airports Ranked by Total Originating Passenger Bookings | |||
| Exhibit JA- 13: U.S.- European Origin and Destination Passenger Bookings by carrier and Immunized Alliance | |||
| Exhibit JA- 14: U.S.- Switzerland Origin and Destination Passenger Bookings by Carrier | |||
| Exhibit JA- 15: U.S.- Belgium Origin and Destination Passenger Bookings by carrier and Immunized Alliance | |||
| Exhibit JA- 16: U.S.- Zurich Origin and Destination Passenger Bookings by carrier and Immunized Alliance | |||
| Exhibit JA- 17: U.S.- Brussels Origin and Destination Passenger Bookings by carrier and Immunized Alliance | |||
| Exhibit JA- 18: Local Onboard vs. Flow-Onboard Passenger Bookings on Overlap Routes | |||
| Exhibit JA- 19: Summary of New On-Line Airports and City-Paris for American, Swissair and Sabena | |||
| Exhibit JA- 20: Top 100 Swissair Origin and Destination Markets to and From U.S. | |||
| Exhibit JA- 21: Top 100 Sabena Origin and Destination Markets to and From U.S. | |||
| Exhibit JA- 22: Top 25 Swissair Origin and Destination Markets with a U.S. Endpoint by Carrier with Greater than a 10% Share | |||
| Exhibit JA- 23: Top 25 Sabena Origin and Destination Markets with a U.S. Endpoint by Carrier with Greater than a 10% Share | |||
| Exhibit JA- 24: Share of Departures to U.S. at European Hub Airports by Immunized Alliance | |||
| Service List |
The proposed American/Swissair/Sabena alliance, as more fully described below, will involve coordination in such areas as codesharing; frequent flyer programs; global route and schedule planning; sales, advertising, and marketing; pricing, inventory, and yield management; procurement; revenue allocation; ground handling; airport facilities and support services; cargo services; ticketing; and information technologies and distribution systems. The alliance will significantly improve consumer convenience and choice, produce operating efficiencies and cost savings that will create greater value for passengers and shippers, increase competition in thousands of city-pair markets, and generate economic benefits for communities across the worldwide networks of the three carriers. Improved air services will increase tourism and encourage local economic development, generating growth in employment and tax revenues. The alliance will also benefit the employees and shareholders of each company. American, Swissair, and Sabena employees will benefit from growth opportunities at each of the carriers, and shareholders will enjoy improved returns resulting from synergies, cost efficiencies, and market growth.
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647 / Steptoe Johnson, William Karas for Sabena and Swissair
| OST-99-6528 | November 19, 1999 | Motion of American Airlines for Confidential Treatment | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647
| OST-99-6528 | December 6, 1999 | Joint Motion for Confidential Treatment | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, William Karas, 202.429.6223
| OST-99-6528 | December 14, 1999 | Letter in Opposition | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
By: American Society of Travel Agents, Paul M. Ruden
| OST-99-6528 | December 29, 1999 | Request of Legend Airlines For No Action | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
Counsel: Legend Airlines, T. Allan McArtor
| OST-99-6528 | Served January 7, 2000 | Notice | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
By: Bradley Mims
| OST-99-6528 | January 14, 2000 | Affidavits; Bruce Rabonovitz, Jeffery Manley, Cathleen Peterson, Constance O'Keefe, Caryn Garvin, Micheal Whitaker, Johnaton Moss, Rebecca Khamnepiur, Connor McAuliffe | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Service List |
Counsel: Kirkland Ellis
| OST-99-6528 | January 28, 2000 | Re: Affidavits | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Affidavits: Robert Cohn, Alexander Van der Bellen, Jonathan Echmalian | |||
| Service List |
Counsel: Shaw Pittman, Robert Cohn, 202.663.8060
| OST-99-6528 | February 4, 2000 | Joint Reply of American, Swissair and Sabena | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| American Airlines Company Press Release 2/01/00 | |||
| Service List |
No answers were submitted on the January 28, 2000 response date established by the Department's notice. Before that notice was issued, ASTA submitted a letter (on November 23, 1999) expressing across-the-board opposition to antitrust immunity for any airline marketing alliance, including the one at issue here and that of Northwest/KLM/Alitalia, for example. Legend Airlines (on December 29, 1999) submitted a letter asking that action on our application be deferred until the Love Field controversy is resolved in Legend's favor. Both of these letters are basically public relations exercises intended to promote their authors' views on unrelated matters, and simply do not rise to the level of substantive opposition.
In addition, American wishes to inform the Department that, effective June 1, 2000, American will shift its Chicago-Zurich nonstop service to Dallas/Ft. Worth, as announced in the attached press release of February 1, 2000. As a result, American will no longer operate overlapping nonstop service with Swissair in the Chicago-Zurich city-pair. The only overlapping nonstop city-pair discussed in the "City-Pair Overlaps" section of the joint application (pp. 20-22) will be Chicago-Brussels, in which nonstop service will continue to be operated by American and Sabena.
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, William Karas, 202.429.6223, wkaras@steptoe.com and American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@amrcorp.com
| OST-99-6528 | February 17, 2000 | Joint Applicant's Notification of Planned Commencement Date of Their Alliance | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Service List |
Swissair/Sabena hereby notify the Department that their cooperation with Delta will end on August 5, 2000. Also, the joint applicants hereby inform the Department that they plan to commence the cooperative activities described in the joint application immediately thereafter, on August 6, 2000.
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, William Karas, 202.429.6223, wkaras@steptoe.com and American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@amrcorp.com
| Order 00-4-22 OST-99-6528 |
Issued April 21, 2000 Served April 21, 2000 |
Order to Show Cause
HTML - With Appendix A |
Approval and Antitrust |
| Appendix A: Proposed Conditions |
By this order, we tentatively grant approval of and antitrust immunity for (1) an Alliance Agreement /l between American Airlines, Inc. ("American") and Swissair, Swiss Air Transport Company, Ltd. ("Swissair"); (2) an Alliance Agreement /2 between American and N.V. Sabena S.A. ("Sabena"); and (3) a Coordination Agreement /3 among American, Sabena, and Swissair, including their affiliates, collectively referred to as the "Alliance Agreements," under 49 U.S.C. §§ 41308 and 41309. If made final, we will direct the Joint Applicants to resubmit their Alliance Agreements to the Department for review no later than five years from the service date of the Final Order. If the Joint Applicants choose to operate under a common name or brand, they will have to obtain advance approval from the Department before implementing the arrangement.
As an express condition of the grant of antitrust immunity to the Alliance, we also direct American, Sabena, and Swissair to withdraw from all International Air Transport Association ("IATA") tariff conference activities affecting through prices between the United States and Belgium and Switzerland and for other markets described below. We further propose to direct Sabena and Swissair to continue reporting full-itinerary Origin-Destination Survey of Airline Passenger Traffic data ("O&D Survey") for all passenger itineraries that include a United States point (similar to the O&D Survey data already reported by their partner American). We further tentatively find it appropriate to condition our approval as more fully explained below.
By: Bradley Mims
| Order 00-5-13 OST-99-6528 |
Issued May 11, 2000 Served May 11, 2000 |
Final Order | Approval and Antitrust |
| Appendix A: Conditions Governing Antitrust Community |
By this Order, we make final our tentative findings in Order 2000-4-22, dated April 21, 2000, and grant final approval and antitrust immunity for (1) an Alliance Agreement between American Airlines, Inc. and Swissair, Swiss Air Transport Company, Ltd. ; (2) an Alliance Agreement between American and N.V. Sabena S.A.; and (3) a Coordination Agreement3 among American, Sabena, and Swissair, including their affiliates, collectively referred to as the "Alliance Agreements," under 49 U.S.C. §§ 41308 and 41309. Our action here is subject to the various terms, conditions, provisions and limitations proposed in Order 2000-4-22.
By: Bradley Mims
| OST-99-6528 | November 8, 2001 | Notice of American Airlines of Termination of Immunized Alliance Agreements With Swissair | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Service List |
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@aa.com
| OST-99-6528 | March 21, 2002 | Notice of American Airlines of Termination of Immunized Alliance With Sabena | Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements |
| Service List |
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@aa.com
Order 2007-5-16
OST-1995-618 - Delta, Swiss, Sabena and Austrian - Antitrust Immunity
OST-1995-792 - American and Canadian - Antitrust Immunity - US-Canada
OST-1999-5674 - Alitalia, KLM and Northwest - Antitrust Immunity - U.S.- Italy
OST-1999-6528 - American, Swiss and Sabena - Approval and Antitrust Immunity for Agreements
OST-2000-6791 - Malaysia and Northwest - Antitrust Immunity - U.S.- Malaysia
OST-2001-10387 - American and British Airways - Approval of and Antitrust Immunity for Agreement
OST-2002-12688 - American and Swiss - Approval of and Antitrust Immunity for Alliance Agreement
OST-2002-13002 - Aloha and Hawaiian - Antitrust Immunity for Agreement
OST-2004-18613 - America West and Royal Jordanian - Approval of and Antitrust Immunity for Commercial Cooperation Agreement
Issued and Served May 24, 2007
The Department has identified several antitrust immunity proceedings as moot or inactive. In
each proceeding, applicants have terminated the alliance agreements for which they sought a
grant of immunity. Therefore, where a grant of immunity was made, it is no longer effective. It
is in the public interest for administrative management to terminate these proceedings and close
the corresponding dockets.
By: Andrew Steinberg
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