American Airlines and Japan Airlines will begin their joint venture under the open skies agreement on 1st April 2011. The agreement will cover some 10 transpacific routes, including flights between New York and Tokyo; Beijing and Chicago.
Both airlines will jointly set fares and share promotional expenses under the alliance, adding about 13 billion yen ($156 million) in annual sales and cost reductions for the carriers they estimate.
“We are preparing for the next decade,” American Airlines President Tom Horton said in a statement released today. The decade “is likely to see growth in air travel between North America and Asia,” he said.
This news is on the back of a US/Japan open skies agreement which granted antitrust immunity last year for a JAL/AA and an All Nippon Airways/United Continental tie up, The immunity lets the carriers set schedules and fares jointly without being prosecuted for anticompetitive practices.