Qantas Airways Ltd Chief Executive Geoff Dixon ruled out job cuts if Australia's national carrier buys a stake in rival Air New Zealand Ltd.
"I can categorically say it -- no job losses," he told Channel Seven's Sunday Sunrise television program. "There will be job improvements. I think a couple of hundred in New Zealand. I see no reason at all why Qantas should be reducing jobs in the next 12 to 18 months."
Last week, Qantas agreed to buy as much as 22.5 percent of Air New Zealand for NZ$550 million (US$273 million) in a bid to share routes and cut costs.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Allan Fels last week said that the proposal "immediately raises competition concerns."
New Zealand's antitrust regulator said the proposed alliance may limit competition in New Zealand's domestic aviation market and on flights between New Zealand and Australia.
"There is certainly, as Allan Fels said, an element of anti-competitiveness in it," Dixon said separately on Nine Network's Business Sunday television program. "But we believe we can get around that and show that this would be good overall for everybody."
Qantas shares fell US$0.06, or 1.6 percent, to A$3.79 at the close of Sydney trading on Friday. The shares have dropped 3.6 percent since the company said it agreed to buy the Air New Zealand stake. Air New Zealand shares were unchanged at 51 New Zealand cents at the close of trading in Wellington on Friday.
Dixon expects to submit a formal proposal to the antitrust regulators in Australia and New Zealand in the next few weeks.
"We expect it to take six-to-seven months, we've allowed for that," he said.
About 80 percent of the routes Qantas flies are currently profitable, Dixon said. That's "higher than it usually is."
On some domestic routes rival Virgin Blue Airlines Pty has more than 30 percent of the market, he said.
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