Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH
THE EUROPEAN Commission (EC) has published its draft condition for approval of Lufthansa's proposed alliance with Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). The restrictions come, as Lufthansa's alliance with United Airlines looks likely to receive a boost from German/US bilateral talks.
German Federal transport minister Matthias Wissman - negotiating a new bilateral air-services agreement with the USA - says that he is prepared to offer the USA open skies in Germany in exchange for anti-trust immunity for the Lufthansa-United teaming.
Wissman says that, in view of question marks over the feasibility of a common European air-transport policy, the interests of German enterprises must be given priority.
Lufthansa says that Germany would have little to gain from Open Skies in the USA, but the airline feels that it would like to take advantage of the anti-trust immunity already granted to the KLM/Northwest alliance, which allows them to agree prices and capacities.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has published its draft conditions on the new alliance between Lufthansa and SAS.
These include:
A frequency freeze on routes linking Dusseldorf and Frankfurt to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo;
A guarantee from the airlines to enter into five-year interline agreements with any new entrant on these routes on request;
Guaranteed slots to be provided at Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Oslo and Stockholm for competing carriers, to allow "effective competition" on the above routes;
The termination of Lufthansa's co-operation with Transwede, and co-operation with Finnair on routes between Scandinavia and Germany.
As it now stands, says the EC, the Lufthansa/SAS alliance - scheduled to come into force on 1 January 1996 - will "...substantially restrict competition on most or all of the routes between Scandinavia and Germany".
The airlines and any third parties now have 45 days to comment on the EC's proposals, before the Commission makes a final decision on whether to approve the deal. It is unlikely that the alliance will be rejected outright.
The final conditions under which the deal would be approved are unlikely to be finalised before the year's end.
Although the German airline gave initial assurances that the new alliance would leave its co-operation with Finnair untouched, it may now be forced to weaken this partnership.
Source: Flight International
