On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines secured the necessary permission from the European Commission to purchase the rival US carrier Northwest Airlines paying sum more than USD$3 billion.
Most notably, the brand new airline, ably led by Richard Anderson, Delta chief executive, will have its headquarters in Atlanta. It will operate under the flag of Delta with over USD$35 billion in annual revenue and with not less than about 75,000 employees.
Firms like Delta and Northwest both announced bankruptcy last year.
In a statement made recently, the EU executive observed, "After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."
According to the EU executive, the activities of the two companies in transporting passengers on transatlantic routes were principally of complementary nature as they have their hubs across several US cities.
It is also noted that with respect to the transatlantic cargo transport, the deal would have only a marginal impact on account of the limited presence of the company felt in the market.
According to the statement, it appears that the decision would never be able to impact its investigation of the SkyTeam alliance of airlines. Notably, both Delta and Northwest are members of this alliance.
In a recent statement, the commission observed, "We had previously found that members of the alliance could not to be considered as effective competitors on transatlantic routes."
