The European Commission has approved Delta Airlines' bid to buy Northwest Airlines, a deal that could create the world's largest airline company.
In a statement on 7 August, the Commission said the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it”.
Air passenger services between European the US are “mainly complementary” as the two airlines have hubs in different US cities, the Commission said. Overlapping routes are limited to Amsterdam-Atlanta, Amsterdam-New York, and Paris-Detroit.
The EU's competition authorities also concluded that the link-up would only have a “limited” impact on the freight-carrying market, because the airlines are only small players on the European market.
The merger, which would create a company with over $35 billion in annual revenue, still needs to be US competition regulators.
The new airline would be called Delta and would be based in Atlanta. Both airlines narrowly avoided bankruptcy last year.
Delta, the US's third-largest passenger and cargo carrier, flies to 119 international destinations, including 32 cities in the EU. Northwest, the US's fifth-largest passenger and cargo carrier, flies to 50 international destinations, including 15 European cities.
Both airlines are members of SkyTeam alliance, which the Commission is currently investigating because of anti-trust concerns about its impact on certain routes. The two companies already cooperate with several European airlines including Air France, KLM, CSA Czech Airlines and Alitalia.
