European Commission approves Lufthansa takeover of Air Berlin subsidiary LGW

BERLIN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has approved Lufthansa's takeover of the Air Berlin subsidiary LGW on Thursday.

"Lufthansa has made enhanced commitments to ensure that the implications of the LGW purchase on competition will be limited," a statement by Vestager read.

However, the merger only received the EU Commission's green light on the condition that Lufthansa surrenders valuable LGW starting and landing rights slots at Duesseldorf airport to prevent Germany's largest commercial airline from gaining an excessive market share.

Vestager said Lufthansa had consequently taken "adequate account of our anti-trust concerns" by agreeing to this concession, enabling her to approve the planned transaction.

According to Air Berlin, Lufthansa offered 18 million euros (21.4 million U.S. dollars) for the acquisition of Dortmund-based LGW.

Lufthansa had originally intended to take over the struggling Air Berlin subsidiary Niki as well, but recently retracted its offer in the face of persistent resistance from EU anti-trust authorities. As a consequence, Niki was forced to file for insolvency within hours and is now desperately looking for a new investor.

Ever since Lufthansa first signaled its interest in Air Berlin, the European Commission has warned that plans to purchase a total of 81 jets from the bankrupt rival would grant it a monopoly on a significant number of domestic German routes.

LGW accounts for 30 out of these 81 jets and currently employs a staff of 870.

"Even if LGW is very small, it is very valuable for us," an unnamed Lufthansa executive told German media. Enditem