Korean Air won EU approval for its long-awaited merger with Asiana Airlines after agreeing to sell Asiana’s cargo business and divest routes to four European cities in order to ease antitrust concerns.
Under the remedy package signed with the EU, Korean Air has to find a buyer for Asiana’s cargo unit and give South Korean budget airline T’Way Air slots, traffic rights and aircraft for routes to Barcelona, Paris, Rome and Frankfurt.
The $1.4bn deal, first announced in late 2020, still requires regulatory approval from US authorities. It can be implemented once the EU approves the buyer of the cargo unit and T’Way starts operations on the four European routes.
