Europe’s antitrust chief said on Friday that she has “quite deep competition concerns” about German carrier Lufthansa’s plan to buy Air Berlin assets.
“We have quite deep competition concerns,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a news conference. “There is a risk that on some routes Lufthansa becomes de facto a monopoly, on a significant number of routes.”
Lufthansa has offered concessions consisting of airport slots and routes to the European Commission in a bid to secure approval for its acquisition of parts of failed airline Air Berlin.
The EU competition authority is now seeking feedback from rivals and interested parties. Lufthansa will have to do more to satisfy regulatory concerns, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this week.
“We can take a number of decisions based on the outcome of the market test,” Vestager said.

Source:Arabnews