ACCC releases draft determination on BA/QF JSA

On 4 February 2010 the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission released its 65 page draft determination on the application to grant a further five year approval for the Joint Services Agreement (JSA) between British Airways (BA) and Qantas (QF).

The Commission noted that in the last five years competition in the relevant markets has increased. Table 2.1 on page 13 in the draft determination shows how airline market shares in the Australian international air transport market have changed over the last decade with sixth freedom carriers Singapore Airlines (SQ), Emirates Airline (EK) and Cathay Pacific (CX) making significant gains. This needs to be read with care as the market share Qantas subsidiary Jetstar (JQ) is not given next to that of Qantas. The decline in the Qantas group market share has not been as dramatic as it appears at first glance, with the combined market share being 29.8% in 2009 (or did the draft mean 2008?).

In a 5 February 2010 report on the release Steve Creedy in the Australian noted that British Airways will cut its daily Sydney-Singapore-London flights next month but it will continue to fly a daily service via Bangkok.