The Korea Fair Trade Commission’s Conditional Approval of the Korean Air-Asiana Merger

Abstract

On 22 February 2022, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced that it decided to conditionally approve a merger deal by Korean Air Lines (‘Korean Air’) to buy Asiana Airlines (‘Asiana’). This article analyses the KFTC’s decision on the Korean Air-Asiana merger and presents the implications of the decision. After discussing the regulatory barriers and the impact of Covid-19 on the airline industry, we introduce the summary of the KFTC’s decision including its requested remedies with a brief analysis.