Press Release: Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of ground handling service provider Servisair by Swissport, subject to conditions

On 18 December 2013 the European Commission cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the ground and cargo handling service provider Servisair by rival Swissport. The clearance is conditional upon the divestment of Swissport's ground handling activities at Birmingham airport and Servisair's ground handling activities at Helsinki, London Gatwick and Newcastle airports, where the merged entity would have faced insufficient competition to avoid price increases for ground handling services. The commitments offered by the parties address these concerns.