Korean’s Purchase of Asiana Receives Korean Government Approval
South Korea’s antitrust agency gave conditional approval to the purchase of Asiana Airlines by Korean Air – clearing another hurdle as the two carriers look to merge to create one Korean supercarrier.
Korean Air announced a purchase of its rival for about $1.6 billion 18 months ago and has been working through regulatory hurdles since in an effort to move the purchase along. The Korean government ordered the two to divest of slots and traffic rights on 26 international routes and 14 domestic routes – provided a new competitor requests them. That comes from the 65 international city pairs and 22 domestic routes the two overlap on.
The merged airline will possess just under 50% of the domestic market share in the country, and about 60% of the international market share to South Korea. The merger is still awaiting approval from six governing bodies: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, the EU, Japan, and China… seven if you count K-Pop group BTS which has still not weighed in but holds great sway.
BA Braces for Catering Walkout
British Airways is preparing for more disruptions to its flight schedule as its catering staff announced a planned strike on March 4 and 5. The action by the union would lead to cancellations not because it would lead to potentially hungry passengers, but because pilots and flight attendants have meal requirements as part of their contracts with the airline. A proposal to feed them temporarily with a pasty from Greggs was not as popular as hoped.
A vote to strike came in at 94% in favor with 100 catering truck drivers planning to walk out for the two day period next month after failed discussions on pay rates. The union said that DO & CO, BA’s caterer, pays some of the lowest rates in the London region – and that’s without taking hazard pay into account for having to schlep to Heathrow for work every day.
El Al to Use Airport Slots as Loan Collateral
El Al is desperate to raise between $100 and $150 million as a condition to acquire bailout funds from the Israeli government, and the carrier is looking to use its airport slots as leverage to raise the cash.
Previously El Al announced an intention to sell a portion of its loyalty program to raise cash, and this slot scheme would be on top of that. The carrier owns high-demand slots at London/Heathrow, New York/JFK Paris/CDG, Hong Kong — that one isn’t as valuable right now as it once was — and Toronto. El Al believes it could obtain a loan worth as much as $100 million by putting the slots up with a non-Israeli bank while the Hong Kong slot could likely get it a free eight oz. bottle of hand sanitizer.
- Air Austral retired its final ATR72.
- DHL Express is taking San Antonio airport to court over a disagreement about an alleged lease violation.
- Gulf Air will be adding service this summer from Bahrain to Milan (5x-weekly), Rome (2x-weekly), Manchester (2x-weekly) and Nice (2x-weekly).
- Lufthansa Cargo is taking delivery of two A321 freighters that will enter service March 15.
- Malaysia and Qatar signed a MOU to play nicely together.
- Norse Atlantic, in an effort to diversify its senior leadership from people named Bjørn appointed Ben “Baby Bjørn” Boiling as CFO and James Lightbourn, pronounced “Lightbjørn” as Chief Strategy and Investment Office.
- PLAY‘s fourth U.S. destination will be Orlando. The carrier will operate 3x-weekly service beginning September 30.
- TruJet is truly resuming operations today with a single ATR72. No one from the airline would confirm if it came from Air Austral.
Where do you learn to make ice cream?
Sundae school.