The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the acquisition in whole of dba Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH, Nürnberg, by Air Berlin plc & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, Berlin. Air Berlin mainly offers flights to European metropolises and classic holiday areas whereas dba operates mostly domestic flights. Consequently, the route networks of both airlines complement each other, apart from a few overlaps that do not raise any competition concerns.
The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Ulf Böge, stated: “In our view the planned merger does not raise any competition concerns but constitutes a strengthening of Air Berlin over Lufthansa which is still dominant in the markets affected.”
The majority shareholder of dba, Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, a textile merchant, already acquired the majority share in LTU in March 2006. However, since LTU has not been sold to Air Berlin it was not a subject matter of the current merger control proceedings.