Lufthansa and ANA are seeking antitrust immunity to add Swiss and Austrian to the existing joint venture between Europe and Japan.
The German and Japanese carriers were granted immunity for the original joint venture last summer (see online news June 2, 2011), with the agreement starting in full this April, and the two airlines are now seeking to add Swiss and Austrian (both Lufthansa Group carriers) to the joint venture.
In a statement ANA said the four carriers would “prepare to launch joint sales initiatives and plan to launch joint sales and pricing products from spring 2013”.
ANA added that the move would help support the carrier’s strategy to expand its international network by 22 per cent during 2012/13.
The expanded agreement would see the number of joint venture routes between Europe and Japan increase from 126 to 154, with number of routes within Europe falling under the agreement rising from 208 to 320.
For more information visit ana.co.jp, lufthansa.com, swiss.com, austrian.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
