El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. have canceled their merger deal. El Al had planned to merge Israir into the operations of its Sun D'Or subsidiary, Globes reports.
However, the Israel Antitrust Authority had objected to the merger for two reasons: fear of harming competition on domestic flights to Eilat, and fear of harming competition with Arkia Airlines Ltd., bearing in mind that El Al was responsible for security for the three Israeli airlines.
El Al and Israir filed an appeal with the Israel Antitrust Authority but shortly before the case was to be heard today the two airlines withdrew their appeal.
El Al notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning that the appeal had been withdrawn and the Israel Antitrust Authority officially announced that "El Al and Israir aren't merging."