Hawaiian Airlines and Japan Airlines have filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) seeking immunity from antitrust laws to create a joint venture (JV) that promises significant advantages for consumers.
If approved, this will be Hawaiian’s first JV, and the first JV in the United States that does not involve one of the three largest U.S. carriers.
The antitrust immunized joint venture (ATI-JV) will build upon the codeshare partnership that the two carriers initiated in March, allowing them to coordinate marketing and sales efforts and share costs and revenue on their joint venture routes. In their application, Hawaiian and JAL demonstrate that the resulting efficiency will create a cascade of consumer benefits including lower fares, increased capacity and enhanced consumer choice.
Hawaiian and JAL estimate that the JV will bring an additional 162,000 to 350,000 passengers to Hawai’i and contribute between US$184.5 million and US$402.3 million to the U.S. economy annually, while generating between 1,855 to 4,049 U.S. jobs.
