The Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved the
upgraded joint venture application of Delta and Korean Air.
The two carriers originally won antitrust immunity in 2002,
meaning that they have long been free to jointly schedule, market and operate
routes. However, under the latest approval, which the DOT issued Friday, Delta
and Korean would be able to operate their joint venture routes with jets from
either airline. Korean aviation authorities must still approve the so-called "metal-neutral"
joint venture.
The airlines are codeshare partners and both are members of
the SkyTeam alliance.
Delta says the metal-neutral joint venture will integrate
its network of more than 290 destinations in the Americas with Korean's more
than 80 Asian destinations. The carriers have yet to say which flights they
will jointly operate. Korean Air flies to 10 U.S. airports while Delta flies to
Seoul from Seattle, Detroit and Atlanta.
Delta and Korean announced their intent to refresh their
joint venture deal in March.
In its approval, the DOT noted that that the two carriers
have yet to make many details of their new arrangement public, but made its
approval subject to them doing so.
The DOT also required the carriers to remove clauses in
their joint venture agreement that would have prevented them from entering into
cooperation agreements with other airlines in the U.S.-Asia markets. The move was
due to those provisions' potentially negative impact on the competitive
marketplace, wrote Todd Homan, director of the office of aviation analysis.