American Airlines Receives Final Approval of Its Joint Business With Qantas and Announces New Routes

This summer, American Airlines received good news: The U.S. Department of Transportation gave final approval of the airline’s joint business agreement with Qantas.

Together, American and Qantas — the flag carrier of Australia, the country’s largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations, and the third oldest airline in the world — will provide passengers flying between the United States and Australia and New Zealand with more products to better serve them.

The new joint venture will allow American and Qantas to coordinate and plan pricing, schedules, and sales, enhance frequent flyer benefits, and further invest in the overall customer experience. The two airlines are also expected to add codeshare services and allow customers to purchase these codeshare flights to more international flights between Australia and the United States.

Several new routes will launch in the first two years of the partnership as well, according to a joint statement from Qantas and American. For starters, American just announced its new nonstop service from Los Angeles to Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as direct service from Dallas-Fort Worth to Auckland, New Zealand, both which will launch in October 2020.

Meanwhile, Qantas recently announced new routes from Brisbane, Australia to Chicago and Brisbane to San Francisco, which are expected to launch by the end of April 2020. These flights will operate on Qantas’ new Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner aircraft.

According to both American and Qantas, the joint venture could create up to 180,000 new trips between the United States and Australia and New Zealand annually.

American and Qantas were already connected within the Oneworld alliance, which allows customers to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on either carrier, check bags through on connecting flights, share lounges, and extend some other loyalty benefits across the network. The joint business will deepen the existing relationship between the two airlines.

“We look forward to working closely with our valued partner, Qantas, on this new joint business,” said American’s chairman and CEO Doug Parker. “We now have the opportunity to launch new routes and provide enhanced service with better schedules, additional frequent flyer benefits, and continued investments in the overall customer experience.”