A question of trust: Alliances are not confined to carriers, writes Bob Schmitz, who wonders whether they are always for the best. (Industry Comment).(Brief Article)

European anti-trust authorities are faced with new thorny questions relating to a commercialisation agreement between eight German airport ground-handling suppliers and draft ground handling labour agreements in France and Belgium.

AHS (Aviation Handling Services GmbH), Hamburg, recently notified the Bundeskartellamt (German anti-trust authority) of its intention to set up a joint company with five other airports. (1) (including Dusseldorf and Munich (2)) for the sale of airside handling services. AHS would act as the intermediary towards airlines for contract handling and servicing. It was stressed that this joint venture should not prevent each participant from submitting its own …