Alitalia (AZA, Rome Fiumicino) along with Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) and Air France-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have collectively offered to relinquish slots at three airports in a bid to placate European Commission antitrust investigation into the carriers' transatlantic cooperation agreement.
The EC said in a statement Tuesday that in addition to an offer to make landing and take-off slots in Amsterdam Schiphol, New York JFK/New York Newark, and Rome Fiumicino available to facilitate the market entry of competitors, the four carriers had also said they are prepared to let rivals access their frequent flyer programmes, sell tickets on their flights, and facilitate their access to connecting traffic.
"At this stage, the Commission has concerns that the extensive cooperation between Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta in the framework of the Skyteam alliance, involving profit-sharing and the joint management of schedules, pricing and capacity, may result in higher prices on the following routes: Paris-New York (for premium passengers), Amsterdam-New York, and Rome-New York (for premium and non-premium passengers). The parties have jointly offered a set of commitments, to alleviate the Commission's concerns," the EC said.
Oneworld members British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) offered similar concessions in 2010 to settle an EU probe while Star Alliance members Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International), United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), and Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) did the same in 2013.
