Van Miert to single out UAL airline deal for early ruling

Date: 27/05/1999

By Renée Cordes

ACTING Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert is set to rebuff calls for final verdicts on three key transatlantic airline alliances currently under scrutiny to be delivered at the same time.

A spokesman for Van Miert said he intended to make a final ruling on the planned partnership between UAL Corp, the parent company of the world's largest air carrier United Airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa and SAS Scandinavian Airlines before the European Commission's summer break.

The competition supremo also plans to deliver preliminary rulings in the other two cases - one involving KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Northwest and Delta and the other Swissair, Sabena and Austrian Airlines - by August.

The companies involved in the UAL venture had been working on the assumption that the Commission would not impose any restrictions on their alliance until it had completed its scrutiny of the other transatlantic tie-ups.

But signs that Van Miert may decide their case before giving final rulings on the others have sparked concern among both the companies and some transport officials, who argue that the Commis-sion should postpone a final ruling on their case until it is ready to rule on all three - even if that means waiting until incoming President Romano Prodi and his team take office in the autumn.

" If they were to impose conditions on us, they would need to impose the same conditions on our competitors as well or we will not have a level playing-field," UAL vice-president Michael Whitaker told European Voice this week.

The alliance has already been granted anti-trust immunity by the US justice department.

But in a preliminary ruling almost a year ago, Van Miert set out several conditions which would have to be met if the venture was to be approved by the Commission.

These included a demand that the airlines involved should cut the number of flights they operate on several major transatlantic routes to allow competitors to enter the market.

But the Commission has yet to rule on several other key issues, such as the relationship between the airlines and travel agents and access to computer reservation systems.