Hate to break it to ya'll but IATA, not the airlines, approve the minimum connection times. Can't blame the airlines for this one.
How are MCTs established or modified?
Establishment of and changes or exceptions to standard MCTs are governed by the provisions of IATA Resolution 765 Official MCTs are determined by the airport local MCT group, which consist of scheduled airlines and railways serving an airport, or if there is no such a group, by the Airport Operating Committee (AOC). Once IATA has been informed by such a group of the setting of, or changes to, existing official MCTs, IATA notifies the Scheduling community (including IATA partners such as CRS/GDS/schedule aggregators) of the changes by posting them on the IATA SkedLink.
http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/passeng...pages/faq.aspx