Ex-Transportation chief queries JAL`s possible tie-up with Delta+

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 Kyodo -
Struggling Japan Airlines Corp.'s potential partnership with Delta Air Lines
Inc. will not automatically open new vistas for the Japanese air carrier,
according to former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
He made the comments in a recent interview with Kyodo News as Delta tries to
woo JAL into its alliance and American Airlines Inc. seeks to keep it from
defecting ahead of a Japan-U.S. ''open skies'' agreement taking effect next
year.
''Open Skies does not mean that antitrust immunity is automatic...There is a
whole bunch of criteria that you have to meet,'' said Mineta in his office in
Washington.
Mineta, an adviser to American Airlines, was referring to the question of
whether U.S. authorities will waive antitrust rules and provide unlimited
opportunities for joint marketing arrangements, including determining prices
and selling tickets together.
If JAL and Delta forge a partnership affiliation, their combined share of
flights on Japan-U.S. routes will account for 62 percent of the total and must
clear antitrust hurdles.
Mineta criticized Japanese officials for not understanding what open skies are,
thus warning against Tokyo's apparent preference for Delta as JAL's partner.
JAL is restructuring under government supervision and is seen as being easily
influenced by the government wishes.
''The bureaucrats want to be aligned with the number one carrier in the world.
But what does it bring you? Does it bring you that much? I don't think so. Not
if (it) doesn't give you antitrust immunity,'' he said.
Mineta, who served as transportation secretary from 2001 to 2006 and is
currently vice chairman of major U.S. public relations firm Hill & Knowlton
Inc., said he is convinced that American Airlines is the best choice as JAL's
partner.
''Except for Japanese politics, American Airlines would be the winner,'' he
said. ''In the long run, I would think that American Airlines should be the
choice.''
Japan and the United States on Friday struck a landmark open skies deal. This
is sure to intensify the fierce competition between Delta and American
Airlines.
Delta has offered JAL a $1.02 billion financial package with global SkyTeam
alliance members, including a $500 million investment, to wrest the Japanese
airline from the rival ''oneworld'' alliance with American Airlines, a unit of
AMR Corp.
American Airlines has also said it is prepared to invest up to $1.1 billion in
JAL, together with its oneworld partners and private equity firm TPG Inc. to
prevent JAL's defection.
Following Friday's deal, JAL President Haruka Nishimatsu said in a statement
that Japan's biggest airline ''will aim at providing better services for
customers through managing air routes efficiently and establishing a strong
network.''
A Japan-U.S. open skies pact will give air carriers more freedom in opening
routes and selecting the number of passenger and cargo flights between them.
Under the latest agreement, U.S. and Japanese carriers will each be granted
landing and departure slots for up to four round-trip flights daily late at
night and early in the morning between U.S. cities and Haneda airport in Tokyo,
which is due to open a new runway next October.
As for Japan's main goal of reducing U.S. carriers' share of slots at Narita in
Chiba Prefecture, they reached a compromise under which the current number of
U.S. slots there should drop to around 25 percent from the current 28 percent
next March, when the number of slots is to be expanded.
==Kyodo