ACCC hold pre-decision conference on Virgin Blue/Air New Zealand alliance application

On 18 October 2010 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) held a pre-decision hearing in Sydney on the alliance application from Air New Zealand and the Virgin Blue group (see previous post). The hearing was closed to the media so there has been no reporting.

However, submissions (scroll down for submissions made after draft determination) from the applicants and most of the New Zealand interests that have in the past expressed doubts about the merits of the case indicate that differences are narrowing with the applicants offering to give conditional undertakings to maintain capacity on routes that are of concern (see the end of the submission from the applicants). These routes (sectors) are: AKL-BNE; WLG-BNE/SYD/MEL; DUD-BNE; and ZQN-SYD.