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Aviation glossary

Joint venture

Also: JV, metal-neutral joint venture, revenue-sharing joint venture

Airlines and business

Agreement in which two or more airlines run a set of routes together and share revenue or profit, acting as a single business in that market.

What it is

In aviation, a joint venture goes beyond codesharing: the partners plan schedules, capacity and fares together in a defined market, such as the North Atlantic, and split revenue or profit according to an agreed formula. The arrangement is described as metal-neutral, because each partner is indifferent to whose aircraft the passenger actually flies on.

Because it involves coordination between competitors, a joint venture normally needs clearance from competition authorities or, in the United States, antitrust immunity granted by the Department of Transportation. One example is the transatlantic joint venture between Air France-KLM and Delta, later joined by Virgin Atlantic.

The term is also used in its ordinary corporate sense, for a company jointly owned by two partners, such as an airline set up by two shareholders.

On Vuelopedia

Delta Air Lines Air France KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Related terms

CodeshareAgreement under which an airline sells seats, under its own code and flight number, on a flight operated by another carrier. Airline alliancePartnership of airlines that coordinate their networks, frequent flyer programmes, lounges and connections to give passengers a joined-up journey. Airline groupHolding company that brings several airlines under one owner, with each usually keeping its own brand, operating certificate and airline codes. Freedoms of the airSet of rights a country grants to foreign airlines to overfly its territory, land there, or carry passengers and cargo to, from and beyond it.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Joint venture. Retrieved October 21, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture

MLA

“Joint venture.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Joint venture.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Joint venture. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture (Accessed: 21 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_joint_venture,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Joint venture}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-21},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-21}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/joint-venture |title=Joint venture |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-21 |language=en}}

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