T'way Air Secures Incheon?Jakarta Route Returned by Korean Air and Asiana

Selection of Alternative Airlines for Seven Monopoly Routes Related to the Merger

Yonhap News Agency

T'way Air has been selected to operate the Incheon-Jakarta route, considered a prime route among the major monopoly routes released through the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.

On January 6, the Korea Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the results of the selection of alternative airlines for a total of seven international and domestic airline routes related to the Korean Air-Asiana Airlines merger.

The Aviation Transport Deliberation Committee (hereafter referred to as the Committee) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport selected alternative airlines at the request of the Korean Air-Asiana Merger Implementation Oversight Committee (hereafter referred to as the Oversight Committee) and proceeded with follow-up procedures, including finalizing the specific time slots to be transferred to each airline.

The Committee evaluated the suitability of applicant airlines for each contested route-including Incheon-Jakarta, Gimpo-Jeju, and Jeju-Gimpo-based on the "Air Traffic Rights Allocation Rules" used in the allocation of air traffic rights, as well as the submitted documents and presentations from each airline.

As a result, T'way Air, which received the highest score, was selected as the alternative airline for the Incheon-Jakarta route. For the Incheon-Seattle and Incheon-Honolulu routes, which each had only one applicant, Alaska Airlines and Air Premia were selected, respectively. For the Gimpo-Jeju route, four airlines-Eastar Jet, Jeju Air, T'way Air, and Parita Air-were chosen.

For the Incheon-New York (Air Premia, United Airlines) and Incheon-London (Virgin Atlantic) routes, the slot transfer procedures will proceed in accordance with measures from overseas competition authorities.

Following this selection, each alternative airline will take follow-up measures, such as organizing business plans that reflect the slots they have been allocated. As early as the first half of the year, alternative airlines are expected to sequentially enter the routes with monopoly concerns.

The Fair Trade Commission stated, "In addition to the six routes for which the transfer has already been completed and the seven routes to be transferred this time, the transfer procedures for the remaining corrective action routes are also scheduled to proceed from the first half of this year."

In December 2024, when the conditional approval for the Korean Air-Asiana merger was granted, the Fair Trade Commission imposed structural measures requiring Korean Air and others to transfer airport slots (the number of takeoffs and landings per hour) and air traffic rights to alternative airlines on 34 routes (monopoly routes) where competition concerns existed.