Airline mergers in Europe – An overview on the market definition of the EU commission

This paper compares the decisions of the European Commission on airline merger cases. The authors provide an overview of the merger decisions between 1996 and 2009 and analyze the definitions of the relevant market applied in each case. First, it considers the relevant market definition develop from the origin and destination approach, and second, the role of economics in the European Commission's airline merger decisions. The paper shows that the Commission has broadened the market definition by demand and supply substitutes only in the case of leisure traffic. Quantitative methods have not been used extensively which reflects a skeptical attitude towards economics based approaches in merger policy.