EC approves final merger of Korean Air and Asiana...Visibility by the end of this year

[Anchor]
The merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines has crossed the final hurdle.

The final approval of the European Commission has been made, but as the merger process is virtually completed, expectations and concerns from the merger of the two airlines coexist.

This is reporter Choi Doo-hee.

[Reporter]
The European Commission, EC, has finally approved the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.

In addition to judging that the requirements for passenger transfer on four European routes have been met, this time, Asiana Airlines has also met the requirements for the sale of its cargo business.

Korean Air said it reported the final approval of the EC to the U.S. Department of Justice and said it will finalize the final transaction process within this year.

As the U.S. Department of Justice is unlikely to file a separate monopoly lawsuit, the review of the business combination appears to have been virtually completed.

It has been about four years since Korean Air decided to acquire Asiana Airlines in November 2020.

It is expected to take another two years for the two airlines to completely merge, and they will operate under their own brands and will be launched as an integrated Korean Air after relocating their manpower.

After the merger, it will be reborn as the world's top 10 super-large airline.

It is expected to further increase competitiveness based on cost reduction.

[Kim Dae-jong / Professor of Business Administration at Sejong University] We are a country that imports 100% of oil, and Korean Air and Asiana will be competitive in purchasing because they buy oil in large quantities. You have a big airline and you have competitiveness in passengers and cargo....]

However, there are many voices of concern.

First of all, internal backlash must be minimized in the process of redeploying overlapping personnel.

In the process of integrating the mileage system between the two companies, there is also a task to come up with a reasonable plan for what to do with the ratio of Korean Air and Asiana.

If the "integrated low-cost airline (LCC)" is launched following the merger between the two companies, the domestic LCC industry is also expected to fluctuate significantly.

I'm Choi Doohee of YTN.

Video editing;Jung Kook-yoon
design;Kim Jin-ho