Court sides with Delta and Aeromexico over antitrust immunity dispute

A federal appeals court has sided with Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico in a long-running dispute with the Department of Transportation over their transborder partnership. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the two carriers may keep operating under the antitrust-immune Joint Cooperation Agreement they have maintained for several years.

The case grew out of a DOT order, issued more than two and a half years ago, that sought to suspend the antitrust-immune portion of the airlines' cooperation. That order was never fully enforced. A separate requirement, unaffected by this ruling, still obliges Mexican carriers to file their schedules with the DOT for approval, giving the regulator some ability to control market entry. A similar filing requirement applies to Chinese carriers.

According to the extract, the DOT's central argument centered on Mexico's decision to move cargo carriers away from Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport to a facility on the city's outskirts. The department had contended that this policy breached the Open Skies agreement between the two countries, and it used that claim as grounds to try to block renewal of the antitrust immunity.

The court rejected that reasoning. It found that tying the fate of the broader open skies relationship to access conditions at a single airport did not match how other joint venture and cooperation agreements have been reviewed and approved.

No routes have been denied under the ongoing schedule-filing process so far. That possibility remains open for the future, though. The ruling is a setback for the DOT's efforts to use the antitrust case as leverage in broader negotiations with Mexico over aviation access.