Brussels, 12/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised United Airlines Inc, the main operating subsidiary of UAL Corp, to acquire US Airways Group Inc. (US AIR). The two companies are established in the United States where they carry out most of their activities. They nonetheless cover connections between Europe and the United States, which explains why the Commission carried out an inquiry restricted to examination of transatlantic links that could cause competition problems. United is a member of Alliance Star which, in Europe, comprises among other companies Lufthansa (Germany) and the Scandinavian airline SAS. United, moreover, concluded a large-scale transatlantic cooperation agreement with Lufthansa.
At the end of the inquiry, it was seen that this operation could entail problems on four connecting routes: Frankfurt-Philadelphia, Frankfurt-Pittsburgh, Frankfurt-Charlotte and Munich-Philadelphia. On the Frankfurt-Philadelphia link, the operation will entail regrouping of the only two operators of direct flights and, on the other three, it will give rise to the association of the only direct flight operator (US AIR) and of the first or second largest provider of indirect flights. In addition to this situation there is the fact that congestion of the Frankfurt and Munich airports creates a major obstacle to the entrance of new competitors on these routes or to the development of their activities. Consequently, the Commission has expressed fears that passengers may be limited in their choice of airline company. In order to allay these fears, United spontaneously pledged to make time slots available in Frankfurt and Munich in order to facilitate the entry onto the market of competitive companies, thus giving consumers more choice. The US Ministry of Justice is also examining this operation from the American point of view. The European Commission has authorised the operation subject to this commitment being effectively honoured.