Hello from bizjournals.com! David Mueller (dmueller7@lycos.com) thought you might like the following article from The Business Journal: The sender's comment about the article: This article covers some of the conditions set by the DOT. Northwest, Delta, Continental alliance approved with conditions Benno Groeneveld Web Reporter ------------------------------------------------------------ The Department of Transportation on Friday approved the largest airline code sharing alliance in the U.S between Northwest Airlines Corp. of Eagan, Delta Airlines Inc. of Atlanta and Continental Airlines Inc. of Houston. The airlines will sell seats on each others' flights and allow members of their respective loyalty programs to get credit or use the facilities of each of the three partners. The approval came with restrictions. A "senior department official," who asked not to be named, said in a press conference that those conditions were put in so that the carriers would continue to compete and would not dominate the market. For example, the airlines may not collude about how much each will charge for a flight, or how much capacity each will use or what routes each will fly. Another limitation is that each airline may code-share no more than 650 flights with another alliance member. The three airlines are also not allowed to code-share flights between their hubs. If Northwest flies between Minneapolis and Delta's hub in Atlanta, "each carrier must fly it own planes," the official said. In order to encourage competition, the department also insisted that carriers must return airport gates if they are used less than six turns per day. Another condition is that the three airlines may not jointly bid on corporate travel plans, or approach travel agents as a group unless they are specifically asked to submit a combined bid. The three carriers submitted their request for code-sharing on Aug. 23. The department said the review took so long because it tried hard to reconcile the airlines' needs for the greater efficiencies offered by an alliance with the public's need to preserve competition. A spokeswoman for Northwest said the airline had no comment pending a review of the department's decision. The senior DoT official said the department will continue to monitor developments, to ensure that the alliance will not harm competition. "They will be operating in a goldfish bowl," he said. Copyright(c) American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. You can view this article on the web at: http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2003/01/13/daily49.html