European regulators have approved partnerships between European and US members of the Wings and Star Alliance airline groupings after a four-year investigation. The European Commission's (EC) investigation of SkyTeam continues.
The EC closed its study into alliances between Star members Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines and United Airlines, and Wings members KLM and Northwest Airlines last week.
It suggests it "will apply a similar approach" when investigating SkyTeam's Air France, Alitalia and Delta Air Lines.
The investigation into Star members was opened by the EC in 1998, concerned that the partners controlled 56-95% of the market from Frankfurt to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC. However, the parties have offered to surrender slots on the routes and agreed that new entrants using the slots and operating a non-stop service will be admitted to the Star Alliance frequent-flier programme and will be offered interlining facilities.
EU concerns about the KLM/Northwest Airline Wings alliance centred on the 88% share held on the Amsterdam-Detroit route and 78% on the Amsterdam-Minneapolis/St Paul route. But the EC says there were "no structural barriers to entry in terms of slot constraints or regulatory barriers".
Source: Flight International
