U.S., Britain may announce review outcome of Korean Air-Asiana deal in November

Antitrust regulators in the United States and Britain may decide next month whether to approve a deal by Korea's largest carrier Korean Air Lines to buy its smaller rival Asiana Airlines, industry sources said Sunday.

Currently, antitrust regulators of five nations, including the European Union, China and Japan, are reviewing Korean Air's combination with Asiana. The company has received approval from nine other countries, including Korea. Seoul's regulator gave conditional approval to the deal in February.

Korean Air is in talks with foreign airlines and local low budget carriers to find alternative carriers that would operate on routes run by Asiana, according to the sources.

Foreign regulatory authorities have requested Korean Air to come up with measures to ease concerns about market monopoly following the takeover. The deal, valued at some 1.8 trillion won ($1.25 billion), was inked in November 2020.

The Fair Trade Commission, Korea's antitrust watchdog, conditionally approved the deal as it determined the combination of the two airlines could hamper competition on a significant number of flight routes.

Yonhap