Australia's competition watchdog has dropped a three-year investigation into Qantas's AUD60 million Australian dollar (USD43.65 million) acquisition in 2019 of a 19.9% stake in charter specialist Alliance Airlines (QQ, Brisbane International).
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), in a letter this week, informed Alliance Airlines it was not taking further action but would continue to monitor the situation, The Australian newspaper reported.
"Although the ACCC is not proposing to take any further enforcement action at this point in relation to this matter, it will continue to monitor Qantas's conduct in relation to Alliance and may take action at another time," the newspaper cited the letter.
Neither Qantas nor Alliance Airlines were immediately available for comment.
Mindful of the Qantas Group's dominance in the domestic market, the ACCC's investigation was concerned with any breach of the Australian Competition and Consumer Act. At the time, Alliance Airlines was working with Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) under a charter alliance agreement.
When announcing the deal in 2019, Qantas expressed the hope it would be a precursor for majority shareholding in Alliance Airlines.
The airline has been a long-term capacity provider to the Qantas Group.
Qantas recently upped to 14 out of an option of 18 the number of E190s it is wet-leasing from Alliance Airlines. The latest three Embraers will be deployed one a month between May and July 2022.
Meanwhile, Alliance Airlines on April 1, announced it had acquired an additional E190, taking the number in its fleet to 33. The former Helvetic Airways aircraft would join its sister ships acquired in mid-2021 - ERJ 190-100LRs VH-XFL (msn 19000354) and VH-XFM (msn 19000420) - in Adelaide. The expanded E190 fleet would enable the carrier to deploy its Fokker capacity elsewhere on its network, the company said.
Alliance Airlines's fleet numbers 62 aircraft, including sixteen ERJ 190-100ARs, two ERJ 190-100LRs, twenty-five F100s, five F50s, and fourteen F70s, according to ch-aviation fleets data.
