Korean Air and Asiana Airlines Corporate Merger Review 'Smooth Sailing'... Passes Thai Approval Process

On the 26th, the initial batch of Pfizer vaccines secured through the international vaccine supply organization 'COVAX facility' was unloaded from a Korean Air cargo plane and transported at the Incheon International Airport Cargo Terminal in Yeongjongdo. / Yeongjongdo - Photo by Airport Photojournalists Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Korean Air announced on the 31st that it recently received a notification from the Thai competition authority indicating the conclusion of the corporate merger review for the acquisition and merger of Asiana Airlines. This follows the Thai competition authority's opinion that prior notification is not required for the corporate merger review between the two companies.

Korean Air also received an opinion from the Philippine competition authority, a voluntary notification country, stating that the review concluded the case is not subject to notification, thereby closing the procedure. Earlier, in February, Korean Air had also obtained corporate merger approval from the Turkish competition authority.

Accordingly, since filing the corporate merger notification with competition authorities in nine mandatory notification countries on January 14 of this year, Korean Air has passed the corporate merger reviews by the Turkish and Thai competition authorities, fulfilling the necessary preconditions related to the acquisition and merger of Asiana Airlines in those countries. It is now awaiting approvals from competition authorities in mandatory notification countries including Korea, the United States, the European Union, China, and Japan.

Korean Air stated, "We are actively cooperating with additional requests from the remaining mandatory notification countries' competition authorities and plan to complete the procedures promptly to finalize the acquisition of Asiana Airlines."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.