Lufthansa said on Tuesday it would respond to a decision by Germany’s cartel office that charter airline Condor was entitled to an antitrust claim against the flag carrier over access to feeder flights for its long-haul passengers. “We have received the Bundeskartellamt’s draft decision. We will reply to the Bundeskartellamt and make a comprehensive statement,” Lufthansa said in a statement. “Please understand that we will not comment on the draft beyond that at this time.” Lufthansa and Condor have an agreement that allows Condor passengers to use Lufthansa feeder flights as part of their journey to holiday destinations. Lufthansa last year said it would cancel that agreement, prompting Condor to complain that Lufthansa abused its market dominance. Lufthansa later agreed to extend the agreement until May 2022. The cartel office said earlier on Tuesday that a preliminary examination found sufficient competition would only be possible if Condor could fall back on Lufthansa services.<br/>
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After eight years of late salary payments and months of coronavirus pandemic pay cuts, Air India pilot Ritesh is daring to hope that he will finally be paid on time once India’s powerful conglomerate Tata Sons takes control of the airline. “It’s been years since we have seen timely payment,” said Ritesh, a second-generation Air India pilot who asked to use a pseudonym. “We are hoping that when the Tatas take over, things will be streamlined.” Ritesh is one of Air India’s 13,500 workers now employed by Tata Sons after New Delhi handed over the airline in January. The deal fulfilled longtime goals of both Tata chair emeritus Ratan Tata and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India had tried and failed to privatise Air India for two decades, while Tata wanted to reclaim the airline his ancestor J R D Tata launched in 1932 before the Nehru government nationalised it in 1953. Now, the hard work to reform an airline bleeding $2.4mn a day begins. Air India is running on a fleet of ageing Airbus and Boeing planes, the company culture is derided as bureaucratic and it has been dragged into legal battles around the world. “Air India seems a bit like a black hole, an endless drain on resources,” said Coomi Kapoor, author of The Tatas, Freddie Mercury & Other Bawas: An Intimate History of the Parsees. The Tatas have conceded that turning round the carrier will be difficult. “Admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India,” Ratan Tata wrote on Twitter after the conglomerate’s bid was accepted in October. Story has much more.<br/>
Korean Air Lines said Wednesday it has received "unconditional" regulatory approval from Singapore for its integration with Asiana Airlines in a move that could speed up its process to acquire the smaller domestic rival. In January last year, Korean Air submitted documents to antitrust regulators of 14 countries for the review of its business combination with Asiana. As of Wednesday, the company received approvals from seven countries ― Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines ― for the integration while awaiting the go-ahead from seven countries ― South Korea, China, Japan, Britain, Australia, the European Union and the United States. The Korea Fair Trade Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting later in the day to review the case. The antitrust regulator is widely expected to approve the integration of the country's two biggest carriers on the condition that the carriers return some of their redundant airport slots and transportation rights to alleviate monopoly concerns. Korean Air, currently the world's 18th-largest airline by fleet, will become Asiana's biggest shareholder with a 63.9% stake if the acquisition is completed. <br/>