OREANDA-NEWS. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has today granted anti-trust immunity to a joint business between Japan Airlines, Finnair and British Airways.  This paves the way for Finnair to join the existing joint business between Japan Airlines and British Airways. The agreement will allow all three airlines to cooperate commercially on flights between Europe and Japan.

The new joint business is expected to be launched next Spring.  The addition of Finnair will further enhance customer benefits by providing better links between the EU and Japan, with more flight choices and enhanced frequent flyer benefits. In addition, this new joint business will allow the three airlines to cooperate on expanding their presence within, to and from this important and growing market.

The revenue-sharing agreement will strengthen the oneworld® alliance and enable it to compete more effectively around the world with other global alliances.

President of JAL, Yoshiharu Ueki, said “We would like to thank the regulator for approving our application for ATI with Finnair joining Japan Airlines and British Airways in our current joint business between Europe and Japan.”

“Amid the evolving Japanese aviation industry, the ATI will enable us to build a stronger value-creating relationship with British Airways and Finnair that can further benefit our customers as well as our business.”

Keith Williams, chief executive of British Airways said, “Today’s decision by the MLIT will benefit the customers of all three airlines by allowing us to explore ways to improve the connections between East and West.”

Pekka Vauramo, CEO of Finnair, said, “We are glad we are now one step closer to starting the cooperation with JAL and British Airways to provide our customers with better connections between the EU Japan.”