Britain’s antitrust regulator gives green light to merger between Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines

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Britain’s antitrust regulator gives green light to merger between Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines

Korean Air's Boeing 787-9 [KOREAN AIR LINES]

Korean Air's Boeing 787-9 [KOREAN AIR LINES]

 
Britain’s antitrust regulator gave a green light to the anticipated merger between Korean Air Lines and its smaller local rival Asiana Airlines on Wednesday after the airline agreed to give up some slots to British airliner Virgin Atlantic on the Incheon-London route.
 
“The Competition of Markets Authority [CMA] considers that the undertakings given below by Korean Air are appropriate to remedy, mitigate or prevent the substantial lessening of competition in relation to both scheduled air passenger services and air cargo services,” the CMA said through a statement on Wednesday.
 
The CMA said on Nov. 28 last year that it was to “consider undertakings offered by Korean Air Lines” and had been conducting further deliberation. Later on Jan. 26 — the date the antitrust body was due to make a decision — the CMA notified the airline it would extend its review until March 23. Wednesday’s decision came earlier than expected.  
 
Korean Air had proposed selecting Virgin Atlantic as an alternative to Asiana Airlines and supporting a new Incheon-London route to increase competition in the market.
 
The framework approved by the CMA on March 1 follows Korean Air’s agreement to reassign slots operated by Asiana Airlines to Virgin Atlantic to address monopoly concerns. Currently, Korean Air has ten slots and Asiana has seven for flights on the Incheon-London route.
 
Through a statement released Wednesday evening, Korean Air said the CMA’s latest move “shows its proposed remedy could address concerns over reduced competition,” adding the decision is “expected to have a positive impact on the ongoing review of the United States, the European Union and Japan.”
 
Of the three other jurisdictions yet to issue approvals, the EU opened an in-depth investigation into the proposed merger between the two Korean flag carriers on Jan. 16 after some two years of prior consultation, and is under the second stage of review from Feb. 20. The U.S. Department of Justice has requested more time to approve the merger. In the case of Japan, the preliminary consultation stage is only just underway. The Korean Air-Asiana merger could be scrapped if it fails to win approval from any one of the three jurisdictions.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]
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