The path of agreement between Ita and Lufthansa it is increasingly uphill. According to rumors collected by Corriere della Sera, theEU antitrust, led by the rocky Margrethe Vestager, not happy with the concessions offered so far by the two companies to avoid dominant positions a Milan Linate and on the connections between Italy and the Usa, would like to raise the bar and prohibit Ita from entering international alliances. In essence, Brussels does not want ITA to be part of the transatlantic joint between Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada. It is a very heavy request that risks definitively ruining the agreement between ITA and Lufthansa because entry into international alliances brings with it very strong commercial benefits for those who are part of it.
However the Ita-Lufthansa soap opera ends, considering that after the European elections a changing of the guard in the EU Antitrust is likely, Italy - and the Meloni Government first and foremost - will never regret enough having thrown the project away of agreement between Ita and AirFrance/Klm, Delta and the American Certares fund that the Draghi Government had practically defined and bequeathed to Meloni. But amateurism, as we know, always causes damage. Like on this occasion.
“Italy – and the Meloni Government first and foremost – will never regret enough having thrown away the draft agreement between Ita and AirFrance/KLM, Delta and the American Certares fund that the Draghi Government had practically defined and left as a legacy in Meloni. But amateurism, as we know, always causes damage. Like on this occasion.”
And who can say with certainty that the alliance with the AirFrance/KLM consortium, Delta and the American fund Certares, would have gone better. When Alitalia signed the agreement with KLM at the end of the 90s, I was there, in the sense that I worked at Alitalia. I immediately realized that the Dutch were sharks and that they would certainly exploit the alliance to convey as many Alitalia passengers to the Amsterdam hub. The alliance then failed due to the lack of development of Malpensa, which to the detriment of Rome should have been the second hub of the alliance after Schipol. And here the League had a hand. Therefore it is not a question of amateurism, but rather of solutions that are difficult to undertake. After all, our country has given up on having a serious airline, to the advantage of RyanAir and other low cost companies that have invaded the Italian market, and of other giants that bring Italians together towards their European hubs, but not only that, given that the number of ITA long-range aircraft is ridiculous.