I was curious if anyone had any knowledge of the inner-workings of the DL/AF/KL joint venture. If I understand correctly, the airlines have effectively merged their trans-atlantic operations and are effectively operating as a single carrier. This means that they share revenues and costs, jointly make decisions regarding fares, routes, aircraft, etc., and have integrated their sales and revenue management operations.

So, a few questions:

1. How are decisions made? I've heard that all revenue management (fare setting, inventory management, etc.) is made by an Amsterdam-based team that encompasses employees from all three carriers. So, do they act as a single team, much like the traditional revenue management group within a single airline? How does the JV decide which routes to offer and what aircraft to fly? Given that all revenues and costs are shared, can AF just decide that it wants to fly 6x 77Ws a day between MAN and LAS and force DL to split the money loss on the route?

2. How are revenue and costs split among the carriers?

3. Will we see further integration of ground operations? e.g., Delta handling AF/KL in all U.S. airports, and AF/KL handling DL in all European airports?

4. Does the JV have integrated corporate contracts with key clients? e.g., a single agreement covering all three carriers?

5. What are the major differences between a JV and a traditional code-sharing relationship? Obviously the ability to jointly set routes, fares, etc., and split revenues/costs is huge. But in a traditional code-sharing arranagement, how does the financial picture work? Does the ticketing carrier pay the operating airline an agreed upon fee per passenger?