Following a remedial resubmission, Korean Air expects the Asiana Airlines merger to be approved by the European Commission in January 2024.
As per KBS World, the airline has submitted a plan for measures being undertaken to get the merger over the line, which includes the offloading of Asiana’s cargo business.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Korean Air-Asiana Merger Expected to be Approved in January…
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Providing the merger between Korean Air & Asiana Airlines gets approved by the European Commission in January 2024, the steps towards gaining approval from the Americans and Japanese then can get underway.
This merger process has been going on for quite some time now, with both carriers acquiring approval from 11 countries.
As for the European Commission approval, Korean Air remains confident that they have addressed the concerns of the intra-state body, and believes it will go through.
The concerns are the following:
- Reduce competition in the provision of passenger transport services on four routes between South Korea and France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
- Reduce competition in the provision of cargo transport services between all of Europe and South Korea.
In the initial findings from the commission back in May, the following was mentioned:
“Korean Air and Asiana compete head-to-head in carrying passengers and cargo between the EEA and South Korea.”
“Together, they would be by far the largest carriers of passengers and cargo on these routes and the merger may remove an important alternative for customers.”
“Other competitors face regulatory and other barriers to expanding their services and may be unlikely to exert sufficient competitive pressure on the merged entity.”
“The merger may therefore lead to increased prices or decreased quality of passenger and air transport services.”
All eyes will be on how the request for approval will go for the Korean Air-Asiana merger.
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