European Union Clears Purchase of Northwest Airlines by Delta

Delta Air Lines won permission from the European Commission recently to buy rival U.S. carrier Northwest Airlines for over $3 billion. The new airline, led by Delta’s CEO, will have its headquarters in Atlanta and will operate under Delta's flag with over $35B in annual revenue and about 75,000 employees. Delta and Northwest both exited bankruptcy last year. The EU executive said in a statement that after examining the operation, the Commission concluded the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it. The EU exec said the 2 companies' activities in carrying passengers on transatlantic routes were mainly complementary as they have hubs in different U.S. cities. It also said for transatlantic cargo transport the deal would have only a limited impact because of the companies' limited presence in this market. The statement said the decision wouldn't affect its investigation of the SkyTeam alliance of airlines, of which both Delta and Northwest are members. The Commission noted it previously found members of alliance couldn't be considered as effective competitors on transatlantic routes.