2024-02-13 19:15:00
On the 13th, Korean Air received conditional approval for the business combination, which is a merger and acquisition process for Asiana Airlines, from the European Union (EU) competition authority. Although there were conditions for corrective measures to resolve the monopoly, such as the sale of Asiana Airlines’ cargo division, it was in fact approved. As a result, only the United States remains among the 14 countries that require corporate combination approval for the merger.
Korean Air announced on this day that it had obtained conditional approval for a business combination related to the acquisition of Asiana Airlines from the European Commission (EC), Korea’s equivalent of the Fair Trade Commission. However, in order to receive final approval, Asiana Airlines’ cargo business division must be sold off and some slots (rights for aircraft to take off and land) on four overlapping routes in Europe must be transferred to a new airline.
The EU was the place that set the most stringent standards for the merger of the two companies. Korean Air submitted a business combination report in January last year, and the EC was originally scheduled to announce whether to approve the merger by July 5 of that year. However, the EC extended the review period twice due to ‘monopoly concerns’ and requested corrective action.
Afterwards, Korean Air submitted a corrective action plan to the EC to sell the Asiana cargo business and hand over some European routes to T’way Air, a domestic low-cost carrier (LCC). On four overlapping routes, including the Incheon-Paris route, LCC T’way Air is preparing for service in the second half of this year. It is said that the Asiana cargo business is likely to acquire Jeju Air, which has deep financial resources among domestic LCCs. Korean Air said, “Starting with the approval of the EU competition authority, we plan to speed up discussions with the U.S. and finalize the business combination review process.”
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