The Department of Justice also reviews these alliances under the antitrust laws. As you know, the Department has statutory authority to grant immunity from U.S. antitrust laws to agreements in foreign air transportation, including airline alliances or integration agreements, which are in the public interest and otherwise consistent with Federal law. We inherited this authority from the Civil Aeronautics Board, which exercised it for decades. Further, we have required the partners in several immunized airline alliances to withdraw from IATA tariff coordination in the country-pair markets of immunized alliances. We work closely with the Department of Justice in reviewing requests for antitrust immunity.
Immunized alliances require market conditions that protect consumers and competition.
It is our position that this protection can only be provided where there are no significant restrictions on the ability of other airlines to enter the markets served by the alliance partners and to respond freely to their initiatives. Immunized alliances, therefore, require open markets. Alliances seeking immunity must also pass Justice Department merger analysis to be eligible to receive DOT immunity, although DOT has authority to grant antitrust immunity where the effects of a transaction are anticompetitive. Therefore, we rely on DOJ s advice as to the application of U.S. antitrust laws to the particular alliance requests with which we are presented. We also conduct our own analysis of potential alliances to obtain a better understanding of their likely competitive effects.