Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) has written to the US Department of Transportation on February 22 objecting against an unconditional approval of the proposed joint venture between Oneworld partners American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) on the Australia/New Zealand-US markets. The joint venture proposal is currently being reviewed by the US Department of Transportation with Hawaiian proposing that it should only be approved for a period of three years to "allow for an assessment of the alleged public benefits."
Hawaiian currently cooperates with Qantas through an interline agreement and expects that it will suffer similar commercial "irreparable harm" as a result of the joint venture as it did when a similar JV between its interline partner Virgin Australia International (VA, Brisbane International) and Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) was approved earlier.
JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) has also written to the DOT supporting Hawaiian's proposal while both American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) have jointly responded to Hawaiian's submission saying that the joint venture would not impact Qantas' and Hawaiian's commercial relationship in any way.
Hawaiian currently offers six weekly flights to Sydney Kingsford Smith, three weekly flights to both Brisbane International and Auckland International, two weekly flights to Pago Pago as well as a weekly flight to Papeete in the region, all from its Honolulu hub. In addition, it codeshares with China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) on trans-Tasman flights from Auckland to Brisbane and Sydney offering additional connectivity.
