Hawaiian Airlines and Japan Airlines (JAL) have filed an application with the US Department of Transportation and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism seeking immunity from antitrust laws to create a joint venture (JV).
The antitrust immunised 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 bring about consumer benefits including lower fares, increased capacity and enhanced consumer choice.
Both airlines estimate that the JV will bring an additional 162,000 to 350,000 passengers to Hawaii and contribute between US$184.5 million and US$402.3 million to the US economy annually, while generating between 1,855 to 4,049 US jobs.
If approved, the ATI-JV would facilitate Hawaiian Airlines’ enhanced access to 34 destinations throughout Japan, including Nagoya and Okinawa, as well as 11 points in Asia beyond Japan. JAL, in turn, will have improved access to Hawaiian’s Neighbor Island network as well as its non-stop flights to Honolulu from Haneda and Sapporo.
Hawaiian and JAL hope to win government approval later this year, allowing them to launch the JV in 2Q2019. If approved, this will be Hawaiian’s first JV, and the first JV in the US that does not involve one of the three largest US carriers.
