Condor and LOT can merge

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the acquisition of Condor Flugdienst GmbH by Polska Grupa Lotnicza (PGL). The Polish airline LOT also belongs to PGL, which is state-owned.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The merger does not result in any relevant overlaps between Condor and LOT. In fact, the companies complement each other so that Condor’s competitive position is strengthened in relation to Lufthansa, Germany’s market leader. We were able to clear the proposed merger in an expeditious manner and in this way we contribute to ensuring that after the turbulences of the past months Condor has a future as an air carrier in Germany.”

Condor is a German charter airline which in addition to selling large volumes of blocks of seats also offers flight tickets to individual travellers. Condor operates short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul flights to approx. 80 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, with the majority of destinations being warm weather destinations around the Mediterranean Sea, however. Flights to Poland have so far not been offered by Condor. The company previously belonged to the British Thomas Cook Group, which filed for insolvency in September 2019. Since then Condor has been under debtor-in-possession management within the framework of insolvency protection proceedings.

LOT is based in Poland and Budapest and mainly operates flights departing from Warsaw and Budapest to various destinations in Europe, America and Asia. In addition to flight connections for individual travellers, LOT offers tour operators charter flights departing from Poland. LOT also flies to a number of airports in Germany.

The review of the planned merger notified to the Bundeskartellamt on 5 February 2020 has shown that there are no relevant horizontal overlaps between the two airlines since they do not operate on the same flight routes. Also with regard to the slot situation at some of the airports in Germany affected by the merger, the parties involved only have a comparatively small number of take-off and landing rights so that also in this respect no competition problems are to be expected as a result of the merger. It was thus possible to clear the proposed merger expeditiously.