Brussels announces fresh approval for CityJet-Air Nostrum merger

The European Commission has again given the go-ahead to Fortress Investment Group and Air Investment Valencia (AIV) to merge CityJet and Air Nostrum. The ruling was issued under the European Union Merger Regulation and will allow Ireland-domiciled CityJet, which is owned by Fortress, a US investment firm, and Spain’s Air Nostrum, which is owned by AIV, a Spanish leasing and charter company, to “combine the[ir] activities”. The transaction was first announced in June 2019, with the Commission approving it “unconditionally” the month after, even though the carriers “overlapped in the provision of wet-leasing services to airlines and charter flights”. The