NEW YORK: Delta Air Lines Inc and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd are on track to receive immunity from US antitrust laws to operate a planned trans-Atlantic joint venture.
In a filing on Friday, the US Department of Transportation said it had tentatively concluded that the alliance, which involves Delta buying a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic, would promote competition and would provide benefits to consumers in the North America-United Kingdom market.
Delta and Virgin Atlantic announced the joint venture in December. Delta agreed to buy the Virgin Atlantic stake from Singapore Airlines for $360m.
The deal would help Delta and Virgin better compete in the market for business travellers, according to analysts, and also would give them an advantage over American Airlines and US Airways, whose merger is being contested by the US Justice Department.
Among the consumer benefits the airlines touted are increased cooperation on flights from the United Kingdom to North America, including nine daily round-trip flights from London Heathrow Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International.
The Transportation Department concluded that the proposed alliance would “ultimately create a strong, competitive counterweight” to another joint venture known as oneworld, which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia.
US credit union regulator sues Morgan Stanley
NEW YORK: A US credit union regulator has filed suit against Morgan Stanley for misrepresenting the quality of $566m in residential mortgage-backed securities sold to two now-defunct credit unions.
The National Credit Union Administration accused Morgan Stanley and its affiliates of misleading the US Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (WesCorp) about the risks of subprime mortgage securities it sold them between 2004 and 2007.
“Firms like Morgan Stanley sold securities that turned out to be faulty, triggering a crisis in the credit union industry that has been extremely expensive to contain and repair, and credit unions are still paying the tab,” NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said in a statement.
Agencies
