On July 23, the European Commission approved the creation of a joint venture between Air Nostrum (YW, Valencia Manises) and CityJet (WX, Dublin Int'l), thus paving the way for the creation of Europe's largest regional airline.
The JV will formally be between CityJet's parent Fortress Investment Group and Air Nostrum's parent Air Investment Valencia. The EC found that despite the existence of an overlap between the two carriers' activities in the field of ACMI and charter operations, the merger will not distort competition.
"The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns, because the companies have moderate market shares, a sufficient number of competitors remains on the market and the barriers to entry are low," the European authority said.
Following the approval by the EC, the creation of the JV still has to be finally cleared by the shareholders of both companies. If approved, the JV will be established by way of purchase of shares in a newly created company constituting a joint venture.
Air Nostrum currently provides ACMI...
