Air New Zealand has informed the Australian Competition Consumer Commission it should reject the requested interim authorisation Qantas and Emirates are seeking to commence marketing their planned alliance.
In a submission to the competition watchdog filed yesterday and made public this afternoon, Air NZ’s Chief Strategy Networks and Alliances Officer, Stephen Jones insists it was “not appropriate to grant interim authorisation for the activities proposed by the Applicants without a complete, full and considered analysis.”
Jones said of particular interest to the ACCC should be the pricing and capacity co-ordination of the new alliance.
Air New Zealand previously attempted to block the carriers’ bid to secure a tentative alliance green-light in Sep last year, however QF/EK removed that original request, only re-applying after winning a favourable Draft Determination on 20 Dec.
“It is difficult to see how the ACCC could authorise co-operation on the Tasman, if that authorisation is to be subject to conditions which are not yet finalised,” the Air NZ executive suggested.
Jones said providing tentative approval for co-ordination on Tasman services without the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport was not “realistic.”
He added that enabling Qantas and Emirates to begin activities, particularly joint sales and pricing strategy, scheduling and capacity co-ordination, “should not be permitted if the ACCC is not completely comfortable that the detriments have been considered adequately.”
Furthermore, Jones reiterated that once commercially sensitive information was shared between the airlines it cannot be retracted if authorisation is ultimately rejected.
He also confirmed Air NZ would be providing a response on the ACCC’s Draft Determination tick on the QF/EK pact shortly.
More information in Monday’s issue of Travel Daily.