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Link to Korea Times article

Korean Air Seeks to Buy Asiana (Recent News Article)

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May 6, 2021, 9:32 am

#106

Gasolin

Join Date: Nov 2013

Location: NYC

Programs: OZ Diamond *A Gold / Delta Gold

Posts: 775

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Smith

Regardless, I think we may be expending more energy on this than is really warranted, because there's not a huge amount of overlap. As far as I can tell, the merger likely only impacts CDG, FRA, and FCO (LHR is now out of EU jurisdiction, so would be a matter for UK regulators rather than EU). It's not like there are dozens of routes that would be of concern to regulators. For reference, the AC-TS case that ran in to difficulties with the EU earlier this year had over 30 markets that were of concern.

Agreed, the US are more interesting because you would have markets like JFK, SFO, LAX, SEA and HNL, which are all major routes to ICN. To be honest, I am just bracing for the impact at this point, don't think the merger can be stopped. I still think the Korean government is wrong to go for that merger instead of proposing the same merging conditions to HDC instead of the conditions they initially proposed.

May 24, 2021, 8:49 pm

#107

elliott44k

Join Date: Jun 2014

Location: Seoul, Korea

Programs: Asiana Diamond, Marriott Plat/Gold

Posts: 171

Seriously, it's become fairly clear that HDC would've been more than happy to grow through with the conditions offered to KE. I don't understand why this is happening, and a lot of Koreans who care are also in that same mode.

May 25, 2021, 6:51 am

#108

NickB

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Feb 2000

Location: London, UK and Southern France

Posts: 18,364

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Smith

The breach of EU competition law occurs when a prohibited merger is executed. I don't know that pulling out of the market altogether (which hurts EU consumers) cures the breach like you're suggesting it does. I think that pulling out would place them beyond the effective reach of penalties from the EU, but I don't think they could pull out and just wipe the slate clean. Otherwise it would be easy for any foreign anti-competitive merged entities to simply pull out of the EU briefly to avoid the penalties then jump right back in with their newfound market power.

This is not what I meant. I meant genuinely exiting the market for good. I don't think that competition authorities would treat jump out and jump back in as genuinely exiting the market.
If an airline genuinely has no business at all in the EU, then there is simply no infringement of EU competition law at all. Nothing in EU competition law compels an airline to keep providing air services in the EU for eternity.

Quote:

Regardless, I think we may be expending more energy on this than is really warranted, because there's not a huge amount of overlap.

Agreed and, as far as the EU is concerned, even to the extent that there is overlap, the commitments that could typically be asked for to approve the merger (eg: releasing slots if a potential competitor wants to serve the route concerned) are unlikely to be a major problem.

SPN Lifer likes this.

May 26, 2021, 3:38 pm

#109

zippy the pinhead

Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: Left Coast

Posts: 862

Would any of you have a second thought about booking a seat for LAX<-->ICN with miles on OZ for early- to mid-2022, assuming availability is there?

Edit: I think I found the answer to my question. I probably should have searched before asking but I have not really followed this story for more than a year, and there have been some twists and turns.

Last edited by zippy the pinhead; May 26, 2021 at 3:59 pm Reason: Added link