Six member of the SkyTeam alliance have withdrawn their request to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for anti-trust immunity.
DOT announced it decision not to grant anti-trust immunity to Air France, KLM, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airline, Alitalia and CSA Czech Airline late last year.
The carriers have now announced in a joint statement that the DOT reached the wrong decision for the wrong reasons.
It said as the DOT remained "open to a grant of anti-trust immunity" they had decided to withdraw their request.
But it asked the department to give its final approval to codesharing among the six airlines.
This already partly exists as KLM has a codeshare deal with Northwest as does Air France with Delta.
In a separate statement, Northwest launched a bitter attack on the DOT saying its decision of last December was "arbitrary, capricious and inconsistent with established DOT precedent and international aviation policy and a giant step backwards in a battle US airlines and their employees and ultimately consumers are engaged in and losing."
Accor likely to retain CWT
Gilles Pelisson, the new ceo of Accor, the giant French hotel ad leisure group, has indicated the company will retain its 50% holding in Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT).
M Pelisson who formally took over last week said he saw Accor's role as continuing to support Hubert Joly, Carlson's worldwide president and ceo and his teams "throughout the company's expansion, alongside the Carlson Group." (Carlson is also a 50% stakeholder in CWT.)
His statement seemingly ends speculation that Accor's new management team would dispose of its stake in the travel management company.