American, JAL to launch joint venture on April 1

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Jan. 11--American Airlines and its alliance partner, Japan Airlines, announced on Tuesday that they will launch their joint business venture on April 1.

The two carriers had already received approval from U.S. and Japanese authorities for anti-trust immunity on its shared routes. With the joint business agreement, Fort Worth-based American and JAL will be able to more closely schedule, market and operate trans-Pacific flights as well as share expenses and revenues on those routes. JAL had previously announced last February that it would remain part of American's Oneworld alliance.

"Our joint business will allow our airlines and Oneworld as a whole to offer better service and increase competition between North American and Asia," said American president Tom Horton at a news conference in Tokyo announcing the launch date.

The venture will apply initially to 10 trans-Pacific routes with American operating flights between Tokyo's Narita airport and Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles as well as routes including Tokyo's Haneda airport-New York's JFK airport, Beijing-Chicago, Shanghai-Chicago and Shanghai-Los Angeles. JAL will operate flights between Haneda-San Francisco, Narita-New York, Narita-Chicago, Narita-Los Angeles and Narita-Vancouver.

Horton and JAL's president Masaru Onishi said the carriers have also changed their flight schedules to make it easier for passengers to connect to other destinations in Asia and within the U.S. The two airlines are also going to co-locate their operations at Chicago O'Hare airport's Terminal 3.

The carriers did not reveal details of their revenue sharing agreement but said that its sales forces would work together to sell both brands including JAL's premium economy tickets, a class of airline service that American currently does not offer on its trans-Pacific flights.