Korean Air Receives 'Approval' in China... "Corporate Merger Accelerates"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Korean Air announced on the 26th that it has obtained corporate merger approval related to the acquisition of Asiana Airlines from the Chinese competition authority, a mandatory notification country. This is the first approval from a mandatory notification country since receiving conditional approval from the Korea Fair Trade Commission in February this year.

The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation requested remedial measures for routes where market share would increase and raise competition concerns if Korean Air and Asiana Airlines merge.

Accordingly, Korean Air submitted a remedial plan to support new entrants wishing to enter a total of nine routes?five routes identified by the Korea Fair Trade Commission as having competition concerns among overlapping routes of the two airlines, plus four additional routes identified by China?by transferring slots necessary for new entry. The plan also includes cooperation to ensure fair competition.

Korean Air expects that the approval decision by the Chinese competition authority will have a positive impact on the reviews by the remaining overseas competition authorities. Currently, Korean Air only has corporate merger approvals pending from mandatory notification countries including the United States, the European Union (EU), Japan, and the voluntary notification country, the United Kingdom.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the competition authority has accepted the remedial plan submitted by Korean Air, and the approval is expected to be finalized soon. Korean Air plans to actively cooperate with these competition authorities to complete the procedures as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, since filing corporate merger notifications with nine mandatory notification country competition authorities on January 14 last year, Korean Air has received corporate merger approvals or concluded reviews from the competition authorities of South Korea, Turkey, Taiwan, Vietnam, and China. Additionally, Thailand has notified that it is not subject to a prior review for the corporate merger.

For voluntary notification countries, approvals have been received from Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. The Philippines is not subject to notification, and Korean Air has received an opinion to conclude the procedure.

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