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Authorising agreements between airlines proposing to operate flights to and from New Zealand under cooperation agreements.
Airline cooperation agreements are a common feature of international aviation but require authorisation as they might otherwise breach competition law, and to ensure the benefits to the public outweigh the risk of lessening competition. Airlines cooperation agreements may include aspects of pricing, scheduling and service delivery in a particular market.
The Civil Aviation Act 2023 allows for authorisation of cooperation agreements, that involve New Zealand destinations. An agreement, once authorised by the Minister, enables airlines to cooperate on various aspects of their operations without breaching competition laws, including cooperating on pricing, scheduling and service delivery.
The Ministry assesses applications received and provides advice to the Minister. The decision to grant an authorisation is at the discretion of the Minister.
Details of airline cooperation agreements currently authorised are outlined on this page. Agreements authorised under the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and in effect before 5 April 2025 are treated as an authorisation under the Civil Aviation Act 2023.
On 14 September 2026, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia lodged an application seeking authorisation to expand their current codeshare agreement. Their current codeshare agreement is authorised for a period of 5 years until 22 August 2029.
Under section 196 of the Civil Aviation Act 2023, the Acting Minister of Transport is considering whether to grant authorisation of an expanded codeshare agreement and invites interested parties to make submissions on the application. Submitters may find it useful to use the Assessment Framework to guide their submissions on whether the Minister should authorise the expanded codeshare agreement.
Submissions will be published on the Ministry for Cities, Environment Regions and Transport website as soon as possible after they are received. If there is any information you wish to be kept confidential, we recommend providing both a public and confidential version of your submission. For more information about how the Ministry treats information received in relation to airline cooperation agreements, see the guidelines.
Please email submissions to airalliances@mcert.govt.nz by 5pm, Tuesday 3 November 2026. Cross-submissions (submission on the submissions) will be accepted until 5pm, Tuesday 17 November 2026.
This section has all of the information regarding the Qantas and American Airlines joint business agreement
Authorisation expires 31 March 2031
This section has all of the information for the Air New Zealand and Air China strategic alliance agreement.
Authorisation expires 31 March 2031
This section has all of the information for the Qantas and Emirates master coordination agreement.
Authorisation expires 31 March 2028
This section has all of the information for the Air New Zealand and United Airlines side agreement.
This section has all of the information for the Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines strategic alliance agreement.
This section has all of the information for the Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia codeshare agreement.
This section has all of the information for the Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific North Asia alliance agreement
This section has all of the information for the British Airways, Qatar Airways and Iberia Airlines joint business agreement.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of authorisation of airline cooperation agreements, please contact us here alliances@transport.govt.nz.