Delta Air Lines, Inc. / KLM Royal Dutch Airlines / Northwest Airlines, Inc. / Societe Air France / Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane-S.p.A. / Czech Airlines

Order 2006-2-1
OST-2004-19214 - Approval of and Antitrust Immunity for Alliance Agreements

Issued and Served February 6, 2006

Final Order - Bookmarked

In Order 2005-12-12. we noted that the Department has typically found international codesharing arrangements to be pro-competitive and therefore consistent with the public interest because they create new online services. improve existing services, lower costs, and increase efficiency for the benefit of the traveling and shipping public. Approval of blanket code sharing will enable the Joint Applicants to offer these consumer benefits. It will enable members of SkyTeam to offer the traveling public single SkyTearn member-marketed itinerary options in markets in which, at present, they can only offer multiplecoded itineraries. Code sharing will also enable members of SkyTeam to offer consumers more frequent and convenient service through the creation of more online routings in markets where one or more SkyTeam members can already market one or more online service options. The authority to code share will also facilitate valuable marketing support for new gateway-to-gateway flights by the SkyTeam carriers that take advantage of the network linkages created when Northwest and KLM (as well as Continental) joined SkyTeam last year.

The Joint Applicants filed a timely response to Order 2005-12-12, disagreeing with our tentative conclusions regarding antitrust immunity and moving to dismiss, without prejudice, their application under 49 U.S.C. § 41308 and 41309. The motion was unopposed. In view of the tentative findings in Order 2005-12-12, we grant the Joint Applicants' motion to dismiss, without prejudice, their application for antitrust immunity.

By: Michael Reynolds