The operation, which had been envisaged several times in recent decades, will bring the NATO carrier into the third global aviation group in late 2021.

AGI – Less than 20 days, then the EU Antitrust Authority’s green light to the sale of Ita Airways to Lufthansa should become official. The culmination of an operation that had been hypothesized several times in recent decades, albeit in different political and air market contexts – the last one in 2019 shortly before the bankruptcy of Alitalia – that will bring the NATO carrier at the end of 2021 within the third group of global aviation (the first in Europe). During the week, rumors were leaked, launched by Bloomberg and confirmed by EU sources: the European Antitrust Authority led by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager would be oriented to give the green light with prescriptions to the acquisition of the former Italian flag carrier (now 100% owned by the MEF) by Lufthansa.

The German carrier offered EUR 325 million in May last year to take over 41% of Ita as the first step in the sale. The deadline for the EU decision was set for 4 July, but the Brussels communication could come a few days earlier. Then it will take the rest of the summer to perfect the details of the operation.

The two companies notified the operation in Brussels on 30 November 2023. In the last six months, however, the European Commission has raised several points about the competition operation, especially those departing from Milan Linate and Fiumicino. Because Lufthansa already owns Austrian, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Eurowing, buying Ita would increase the concentration of routes in its portfolio. A long dialogue ensued, which at times was not easy.

There is the issue of the routes from Fiumicino to the United States. Ita could initially be barred from joining the joint venture linking the German carrier with United and Air Canada for North America. And then that of the European market, with Ita/Lufthansa that could give up to about twenty slots in Linate to favor the competition. Several low-cost carriers, from EasyJet to Ryanair and WizzAir, may be interested in acquiring the slots vacated by the two airlines at Italian airports.

Lufthansa aims to acquire what it considers to be the most important market outside the domestic and US markets, due to strong tourist flows. Ita, for its part, needs a strong industrial partner to continue on its path, with the government advocating the operation. Failure to join one of the largest aviation groups would have made the spectre of the decades of Alitalia’s management materialize, estimates speak of more than 10 billion euros paid by the State in the coffers of the old flag carrier between the mid-seventies and 2021 to avoid bankruptcy.