China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has approved All Nippon Airways (ANA) Holdings’ takeover of Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) from the NYK Group with the proviso that the business commits to preserving fair competition in the China-Japan air cargo market.
The market regulator said that existing agreements for cargo ground handling at Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai airports must be honoured as a condition of the approval.
This approval from the Chinese regulatory body, which follows approval from the Japan Fair Trade Commission in January, is the latest hurdle to be overcome in a series of delays since the acquisition deal was first announced in March 2023.
While ANA had originally anticipated it would complete the deal on 1 October 2023, the company is now set to acquire NCA on 1 August, due to the time taken for the competition authority approvals process to be completed.
Shipping group NYK decided to offload Boeing 747-8 freighter operator NCA due to the ongoing costs of running the cargo airline.
NCA currently operates a fleet of eight 747-8 freighters and owns five 747-400 freighters that are operated by ASL and Atlas Air.
ANA said at the time the deal was announced that the takeover would dramatically enhance its international air cargo network and products and services based in Japan.
ANA operates six Boeing 767 freighters and two Boeing 777 freighters.