All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.; Continental Airlines, Inc.; and United Air Lines, Inc.: Joint Venture Agreement

Case Title

All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.; Continental Airlines, Inc.; and United Air Lines,Inc.: Joint Venture Agreement

Notifying Date

13 January 2011

Notifying Parties

The parties to the JV Agreement are:

1. All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd ("ANA");

2. Continental Airlines, Inc. ("Continental"); and

3. United Air Lines, Inc. ("United");

Summary of the nature and objective of the agreement

The JV Agreement is intended to bring together the routes of ANA, Continental and United. After the formation of the joint venture, the Applicants will jointly set capacity, schedules and fares for certain transpacific routes. All revenues from the routes brought together will be pooled and then redistributed to the individual carriers according to a formula to be established by the Applicants. The aim of the JV Agreement is to establish ‘metal-neutrality’ between the Applicants, in that each will become indifferent as to which airline operates the underlying metal (i.e. the aircraft) on each route.

The JV Agreement is intended to be executed in 2011 and to last for an indefinite duration.

The focus of the JV Agreement involves passenger air services.

Decision

On 4 July 2011, CCS issued a clearance decision to the parties informing them that their JV Agreement is excluded from section 34 of the Act as they have net economic benefit, pursuant to section 35 of the Act, read with paragraph 9 of the Third Schedule of the Act. 

Click here ↗ (opens in new tab) for the decision