Does anyone know when American will obtain government approval to fly to Australia?

Does anyone know when American will obtain government approval to fly to Australia?

You mean America Airlines? I do not care - in my experience it worst company that I even flown.

So you just added what value to this conversation? 

“Value” is pretty much as “beauty” – i.e. in eyes of beholder. I said that even if AA starts fly direct route MEL-LAX tomorrow and I need to go to LAX I will not use it anyway. We did around the globe trip and among all carriers that we used AA was the worse by quite a margin. Your opinion could be different.

Yes, it may. So why did you feel the need to inject yours? Given that the question was "When will they start flying", not "Do you think they're a good airline?" 

In answer to the question: I believe they're scheduled to start in December. I don't know when the approval will come through but I assume that plans have been made that it will do so in a timely manner. I can't see any reason why the regulators would forbid it. 

Pretty sure the question wasn't what your thoughts are on American Airlines. After all you answered that yourself....nobody cares.

To answer your question it should be soon. QF and AA would not have started selling tickets if they knew it was going to be knocked back

Just look at EK and QF for example they were selling tickets and used it as a reason for allowing the approval to go ahead.

Other airlines like Delta, Air NZ, Virgin, United will all complain as it is unfair but then again Delta and VA already have a similar agreement with the flights running from LAX to SYD

No Australian or American international carrier requires permission to fly between Australia and the US. Australia and the US have open skies and there is no limit on the amount of flights, seats or destinations. The only limit is any slots or curfews in place at the applicable airports.

The government approvals required are nothing more then a rubber stamp from AU's IASC and US's DOT, no more then a few seconds of the paperwork landing on the desk.

The issue with the QF SFO and AA SYD flights is that they are making changes to their transpac joint venture, which requires approval from the ACCC and DOT. The ACCC has given this approval, don't know about the status of the application to DOT.