UNITEHERE! 

1775 K Street, NW, Suite 620, Washington, DC 20006' TEL (202) 393'4373 • FAX (202) 223-6213 • WWW.UNITEHERE.ORG 

June 3,2011 

Christine A. Varney 

Assistant Attorney General 

Department of Justice Antitrust Division 

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20530 

Dear Ms. Varney, 

As you may know, on April 21, a group of Star Alliance airlines including Lufthansa, United, 

Continental and Air Canada submitted a motion to the Department of Transportation seeking an 

expansion oftheir current antitrust immunity, as granted by the DOT in Order 2009-7-10 within 

Docket OST-2008-0234. 

In 2009, your Department offered what we believed to be a critically important analysis and 

critique of the global immunity the airlines sought at the time. We write to request that you issue 

an opinion on the currently proposed expansion of the controversial immunity. 

With airfares on the rise for U.S. consumers, especially in international travel, we think it is 

especially important to limit the antitrust immunity our nation grants to airline partnerships. 

Additionally, we have the following concerns about the current motion: 

• In your 2009 report, your department was concerned about possible anti-competitive 

effects of immunizing airline partners with hubs at both ends of certain city-pairs. This new 

application seeks immunization that would add three such hub-to-hub pairs: 

Washington/Dulles to Brussels, Chicago to Brussels and Newark to Brussels. The 

immunized partners would face no non-stop competitors on the Dulles - Brussels route, 

and only one non-stop competitor on the Chicago - Brussels route, while holding the 

dominant hub presence at both ends. 

• Three of the airlines involved in this request for antitrust immunity expansion are currently 

subjects of antitrust probes the European Commission launched in February 2011. One of 

the routes under scrutiny overseas - Brussels to Lisbon - is included in the U.S. application. 

• Lufthansa - which wholly-owns four of the ten airlines seeking the expansion and partially 

owns the 11th airline they seek to add - is reportedly the subject of an investigation that the 

German competition authority, Bundeskartellamt, announced in April 2011. The reported 

investigation concerns an alleged requirement that business customers turn over sensitive 

JOHN W. WILHELM, PRESIDENT 

GENERAL OHICERS: Sherrl Chle-sl'. S~(f~tary·Trusuref: Ptttr Ward, R~o,din, Sl!cr~tary; D. Taylor. Gtn~nt Viet Prtslde-nt; 

Tho Thi Do, G~neral Vi<. Prtsident fo( lmmlClahon, eMi RIghts and OIYf'rslty 
information about their dealings with Lufthansa's competitors in order to get discounts. 

Lufthansa has not commented. 1 

• In 2009, the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Air Canada, 

Continental, Lufthansa and United, all of which are involved in the current request for 

immunity expansion. The EC has not released a final decision from their investigation. 

We ask that the Department ofJustice do the following: 

• Issue an analysis on the motion for antitrust immunity expansion as filed In Docket OST2008-0234 on April 21, 2011. 

• Revisit the anti-competitive effects of immunization of airlines on hub-to-hub city-pairs. We 

believe it is necessary not only to examine possible carve outs for the Dulles-Brussels, 

Chicago-Brussels and Newark-Brussels pairs noted above but also to reconsider the 

Frankfurt - Dulles/Chicago carve outs. 

As you know, your department recommended that the Department of Transportation 

maintain the Frankfurt - Dulles / Chicago carve outs but Order 2009-7-10 nonetheless 

allowed the inclusion of those routes in the Atlantic Plus Plus immunity. We would like to 

see an analysis of the effects of ending those carve-outs. 

• Analyze the competitive effects of Atlantic Plus Plus Joint Venture since the 2009 Order. It 

concerns us that in April, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that the cheapest round-trip 

flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, in the first week of May 

2009 was $499, but that in 2011 the least-expensive flight for the same time period on the 

same route was $1,067. 

• Gather information from the ongoing European and German antitrust probes involved the 

airline applicants. 

We agree with the previously stated sentiments of Senators Leahy, Kohl and Hatch that such 

immunity must be granted "sparingly." Yet, the current motion would expand antitrust immunity 

that has already proven controversial at a time when the airlines involved are facing antitrust 

scrutiny elsewhere in the world. 

We hope that the Department ofJustlce is able to find the time and resources necessary to engage in 

this important and timely issue. 

Sincerely, 

~kJ.w~ 

John W. W!lhelm 

President 

cc: See Enclosed 

1 See the original article In the Financial Times Deutschland at htt.p:/Iwww.ftd.de/unternehmenfhandeidlenstleister/;~rQsskundenrabatte-karteIlamt-knQepft-sich-Jufthansa-yor/6Q044544,html. or the English language 

summary at http; IIwww.the!ocal.de/nationaI!20110428-3467S.htmi. . . 
~ 

! 

I 

, 

cc: 

Arthur J. Molins 

General Counsel North America 

Deutsch Lufthansa AG 

1640 Hempstead Turnpike 

East Meadow. NY 11554 

Arthur.molins@dlh.de 

Stephen J. Morrissey 

Managing Director, Regulatory 

United Airlines and Continental Airlines 

1025 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Ste. 1210 

Washington, DC 20036 

steve.mordssey@united.com 

Hershel I. Kamen 

Vice President-International, Regulatory 

and Policy 

United Airlines and Continental Airlines 

1350 1St., NW, Ste. 1250 

Washington, DC 20005 

hershel.kamen@united.com 

Daniel A. Weiss 

Managing Director, International 

United Airlines and Continental Airlines 

1350 I St., NW, Ste. 1250 

Washington. DC 20005 

Dan.weiss@united,com 

Thomas Newton Bolling 

Associate General Counsel, Regulatory, 

Alliances and International 

United Airlines and Continental Airlines 

1350 I St., NW, Ste. 1250 

Washington, DC 20005 

Thomas.bolline@coair.com 

Michael Goldman 

Silverberg, Goldman and Bikoff LLP 

Counsel for Scandinavian Airlines System 

1l0130th Street NW, 

Washington, DC 20007 

mgoldman@sgbdc.com 

Max Sandlin 

Lobbyist - Air Canada 

Mercury LLC 

601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 

North Building, Suite 1000 

Washington DC 20004 

agust@mercuryllc.coID 

Rui Pinto 

Lobbyist - TAP Air Portugal 

Bristol Group 

6112 Stegen Drive 

Alexandria, VA 22310 

tia~Qpinto@bristolgrQup.ne 

Ray LaHood 

Department of Transportation 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Ave, SE 

Washington, DC 20590