(BRUSSELS) - EU regulators on Wednesday approved a bid by Delta Airlines of the United States for its smaller rival Northwest, smoothing the way towards the creation of the world's biggest airline.

The European Commission announced it had decided "that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."

Delta, the third-largest US airline, is attempting to acquire Northwest, the number five US carrier, in a takeover that would create the largest airline in the world in an 18-billion-dollar merger announced in April.

"From the European perspective, the activities of the parties overlap in the provision of scheduled air passenger and cargo transport between Europe and the US," the European Commission said in a statement.

However the EU executive decided that, on cargo transport, the proposed transaction would have only a minor impact because of the parties' limited presence in the European market.

As for passenger travel, it determined that as the two airlines already coooperate under the Skyteam Alliance umbrella, along with European carriers, and as their transatlantic routes are largely complementary, "the Commission has concluded that the present transaction would not raise competition concerns."

Both Delta and Northwest emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last year.

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