On 7 September 2012, Qantas and Emirates applied for authorisation to coordinate their operations pursuant to a Master Coordination Agreement. Under the Master Coordination Agreement Qantas and Emirates will cooperate, for an initial period of ten years, on passenger and freight operations, including:
-planning, scheduling, operating and capacity;
-sales, marketing, advertising, promotion, distribution strategies, reservation priority and pricing (including fares, rebates, incentives and discounts) (for passengers, freight customers and agents);
-connectivity and integration of certain routes;
-codeshare and interline arrangements;
-control of inventories and yield management functions;
-frequent flyer programs;
-all passenger-related aspects to provide a consistent level of service to customers including ground services and lounge access;
-harmonising service and product standards;
-harmonising IT systems;
-joint airport facilities;
-potentially joint offices for sales activities;
-potentially other aspects of operations including ground handling, joint procurement and flight operations;
-where appropriate and mutually agreed, making joint submissions to authorities on operational matters;
-services and activities that are required to facilitate any of the matters referred to above.
On 27 March 2013 the ACCC issued a determination granting conditional authorisation for a period of five years.
The copy of the ACCC's determination is available by following the links below.
In accordance with the Conditions of the authorisations the ACCC commenced a review on 1 September 2015 to determine whether to require the alliance to increase capacity flown across specific routes between Australia and New Zealand.
On 25 May 2016 the ACCC decided not to require the alliance to increase capacity flown on the relevant trans-Tasman routes over the remaining term of the authorisation.
