Korean Air Submits Opinion Letter on 'Asiana Integration' to Fair Trade Commission

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Korean Air has submitted its opinion on the Asia Airlines corporate merger review report to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).

According to the aviation industry on the 21st, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines each submitted their opinions to the KFTC in the afternoon. After reviewing the opinions, the KFTC plans to hold a plenary meeting in early next month to begin deliberations.

Earlier, the KFTC tentatively concluded to approve the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines on the condition that they implement partial slot (the number of possible aircraft takeoffs and landings per hour) returns and redistribution of traffic rights. Additionally, for some routes where measures such as traffic rights allocation are ineffective or unnecessary, the KFTC plans to impose measures such as fare increase restrictions and prohibitions on supply reduction.

The KFTC judged that upon the merger of the two companies, competition restrictions would arise on a significant number of routes, including 10 monopoly routes with a 100% market share, such as 'Incheon-LA', 'Incheon-New York', 'Incheon-Zhangjiajie', and 'Busan-Nagoya'.