France, Holland form super-airline

European Union (EU) antitrust investigators gave their conditional approval to the merger between Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines yesterday, creating one of the world's largest airlines.

EU regulators said the deal could go ahead provided the two carriers give up 94 landing slots a day, mostly on the Amsterdam to Paris route, which they dominate.

The carriers said they would not fix prices on long-haul routes where competition was minimal. The deal still needs approval by American antitrust regulators.