Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia trans-Tasman alliance reauthorised

New Zealand's Minister of Transport reauthorised (20-Sep-2013) the trans-Tasman alliance between Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia for a period of five years. Under the alliance, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia will:

• Fully cooperate and coordinate on all aspects of their international services on the trans-Tasman routes;
• Code share on the network alliance routes;
• Work together to align their customer facing products and systems on the trans-Tasman routes to:
  • achieve metal neutrality - where each applicant faces equal incentives to sell tickets on their own aircraft as well as aircraft of their partner on trans-Tasman sectors;
  • provide passengers with a harmonised and integrated product with consistent service and seamless check-in, transfers, baggage and other services;
• Cooperate in achieving cost savings, cost sharing and other efficiencies;
• Work together to optimise their operations on the trans-Tasman routes by developing a network that matches aircraft type to route and focuses each Operating Carrier on its market strengths and primary operating hubs;
• Cooperate to develop new Tasman products that customer's value.

The Alliance was initially authorised by then Minister of Transport Hon Steven Joyce on 21-Dec-2010 for a period of three years. Authorisation was subject to compliance with the Alliance Capacity Implementation Agreement, which required the applicants to at least maintain base year (pre-alliance) capacity on the Tasman overall, and increase capacity on certain routes. The Alliance has been reauthorised for a period of five years (until 31-Oct-2018). Under the terms of reauthorisation in New Zealand, the airlines will not be required to meet any minimum capacity requirements. However, they will be required to meet minimum capacity requirements which have been imposed in Australia by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - II]