The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has finalised the granting of antitrust immunity to American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) and their transpacific joint business agreement.

The "enhanced" partnership is a metal-neutral revenue-sharing joint venture, which covers routes between North America, including the US mainland, the US Caribbean territories (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands), Canada, Mexico, and Australasia (limited to Australia and New Zealand).

It was provisionally greenlit for a seven-year period in June albeit with various conditions attached. These include that the two airlines must submit to the DOT, within six months, proof that they have implemented the JBA as per the terms of the DOT's final order.

Thereafter, every year, they must also submit similar annual progress reports detailing the JBA's impact in terms of capacity, technological investment, market stimulation, and efforts to bolster third-party carrier cooperation at either airline's US and Australian gateways. Six years and six months from now (i.e. January 19, 2026), ahead of the immunity's expiration, the two carriers must also submit to the DOT, a detailed self-assessment of the impact the JBA has had on the market based on the same criteria.

American and Qantas are also required to provide support to third party airlines, operating their own aircraft on a nonstop basis in the US to Australia and/or US to New Zealand market, for feeder flights on an interline basis.

"The Joint Applicants must offer a new entrant inventory access and/or interline code-share on terms that are comparable to those offered to the Joint Applicants’ non-immunized partners, including non-immunized codeshare partners, and the financial terms must be no less favourable than IATA prorate agreement(s) in effect for non-immunized partners at the time," the DOT said.

The two carriers already have authorisation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which is valid for two more years, until 2021.