Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of joint control over Czech national carrier České aerolinie by Travel Service and Český Aeroholding

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of joint control over České aerolinie (“CSA”), the Czech national air carrier, by Travel Service and Český Aeroholding (“CAH”), all of the Czech Republic. The Commission found, in particular, that passengers would continue to have a number of alternative suppliers for their flights to and from Prague airport.

CSA and Travel Service, which operates and markets scheduled passenger flights under the brand Smartwings, have their hub at Prague airport. The Commission’s investigation confirmed that the proposed transaction would not lead to any anticompetitive effects on the market for air transport of passengers as CSA and Travel Service will continue to face sufficient competitive pressure from other carriers on the overlapping routes which are all out of Prague airport. The Commission’s investigation also confirmed the absence of any anti-competitive effects resulting from the relationship between CAH’s activities in ground handling, fuel supply, maintenance, repair and overhaul services and CSA’s and Travel Service’s air transport operations. Indeed, the companies will have no incentive to shut out competitors from access to CAH’s services, because the interests of CAH and Travel Service are not identical and their benefit from such strategies, if any, will be very limited.

The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition concerns in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The transaction was notified to the Commission on 14 November 2014.