American Airlines Group Inc (AAL)

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EU issues report on why it approved the US Airways-American Airlines merger


The European Union approved the US Airways-American Airlines merger on Aug. 5, but finally issued its full report Wednesday on its review and conclusions on the merger.

As was reported at the time, the EU accepted the US-AA offer to surrender a takeoff slot and landing slot at London Heathrow Airport to allow a competitor to start service on the London-Philadelphia route.

Right now, the route has a daily flight by US Airways and two by American’s Oneworld partner British Airways. Out of 27 trans-Atlantic routes, the London-Philadelphia route was the only one that raised alarm bells for EU regulators.

The EU didn’t buy the AA-US reasoning that London flights out of Newark, N.J., provided sufficient competition for the Philadelphia route, according to the EU report. But an additional competitor on the London-Philadelphia was sufficient to allay the EU concerns.

We don’t know what airline might get the slots and operate the route (assuming the merger survives an antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

The EU report said that under the final commitments from American and US Airways, the European Commission “would collect bids for the Slots and assess whether the applicant is a viable competitor with the ability, resources and commitment to operate services on the Airport Pair [London-Philadelphia] in the long term as a viable and active competitive force.”

Here’s the full report for those who would like to spend a lovely evening reading its 71 pages.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/eu-issues-report-on-why-it-approved-the-us-airways-american-airlines-merger.html/