Alitalia744 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 4660 posts, RR: 45 Posted (5 years 10 months 17 hours ago) and read 5421 times:
Delta & Air France are potentially pursuing a TATL joint-venture (50/50 profit split) with initial routes to be JFK-CDG and LHR-USA routings...
Quote: PARIS (AFP) - Air France is pursuing joint-venture talks with US partner Delta Air Lines but has yet to finalise a deal described by a French newspaper as imminent, an airline spokeswoman said Monday.
Air France "is still in negotiations with Delta, but nothing has been finalised," the spokeswoman told AFP in reaction to a report in the financial daily Les Echos.
According to the report, talks between the two airlines, both members of the Skyteam alliance, had progressed and "the agreement being negotiated should be signed in the autumn."
Goldorak From France, joined Sep 2006, 1673 posts, RR: 3 Reply 4, posted (5 years 10 months 14 hours ago) and read 5057 times:
According to Les Echos of yesterday (a reliable daily economic French newspaper), the joint venture will allow AF & DL to share the profits of their transatlantic flights. However, interestingly, this agreement will be in 2 phases. The 1st phase in 2008 will be limited to all transatlantic flights to CDG from ATL, CVG, JFK and ... SLC, so all DL hubs. LHR is also in the scope of this 1st phase. So it's probably a confirmation that something will happen from SLC (LHR or CDG). In a 2nd phase, the agreement will be extended to all transatlantic flights of the 2 partners.
DLPMMM From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 3535 posts, RR: 9 Reply 5, posted (5 years 10 months 7 hours ago) and read 4734 times:
Quoting Evan767 (Reply 1): Hmmm... So this would be similar to KL+NW?
Quoting Goldorak (Reply 4): According to Les Echos of yesterday (a reliable daily economic French newspaper), the joint venture will allow AF & DL to share the profits of their transatlantic flights. However, interestingly, this agreement will be in 2 phases. The 1st phase in 2008 will be limited to all transatlantic flights to CDG from ATL, CVG, JFK and ... SLC, so all DL hubs. LHR is also in the scope of this 1st phase. So it's probably a confirmation that something will happen from SLC (LHR or CDG). In a 2nd phase, the agreement will be extended to all transatlantic flights of the 2 partners.
According to NPR this morning, the JV will involve revenue and expense sharing (a la NW/KL) on at least some TATL flights. The first flights to be designated for the JV will be JFK-LHR.
Since NPR is not the best source for either business or aviation news, I will interject here what I think the agreement will cover (this is only my guess). I would expect the JV agreement to first cover all flights between USA and LHR and all flights between the USA and France.
There could be additional USA EU flights covered in the future on some basis.
Jetlanta From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 2906 posts, RR: 28 Reply 6, posted (5 years 10 months 6 hours ago) and read 4627 times:
Air France had been hesitant to move forward with this idea until getting a hold of KLM. After seeing how strong the JV performs, AF decided to pursue it more aggressively. The LHR slot issue helps.
It will be very interesting to see whose aircraft end up on which routes. Just like NW/KL, these carriers may swap routes back and forth on a regular basis. Also, new routes will now be possible that might not have happened before due to operational issues (schedule rotation issues, non-availability of DL 777s for mission-specific flying).
And those 757s might look nice dotting the French landscape to a degree we haven't seen before.
WorldTraveler From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (5 years 9 months 4 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 2020 times:
AF also realizes what a huge opportunity a JV provides to them in accessing all of the EU when Open Skies goes into effect. Because of the phases, it won't happen right away but AF will get a piece of DL's immense continental European route system which, unlike NW, is heaviest outside of AF's home market. DL benefits from having AF help them market flights in developing regions like Eastern Europe.
Because DL has lower costs than AF, it is likely DL will be given the nod to do most of the expansion. (like they needed to be told to expand on their own).
Finally, DL has been undoubtedly holding AF back on participating in a JV until DL gained access to LHR thanks to AF's help.
The DL/AF relationship will eclipse any other international partnership based on the sheer size of both carriers.
Oh... and the JV involves parts of Africa and the Middle East as well.
Bartond From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 788 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (5 years 9 months 4 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1918 times:
Wow, this has some huge implications.
Are these the only two carriers considering this type of JV? UA and LH seem like they work so closely together that maybe something like this would work for them? I don't know, I'm just throwing it out there as I've become a UA / LH supporter now that I live in Denver.
If a UA / LH joint venture wouldn't work, what makes those two not liable to start one up?
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