The Italian government aims to sign a preliminary agreement for ITA Airways by September 10.
ITA Airways, born from the ashes of Alitalia, is on the verge of falling into the hands of the American investment fund Certares, associated with Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines, which won the race for takeover against the giants MSC on Wednesday. and Lufthansa. The consortium led by Certares has been invited to enter into exclusive negotiations with the Italian State, which owns 100% of the company, the Ministry of the Economy said without revealing the amount of the offer.
Yesterday evening, the Franco-Dutch group indicated that “if this operation were concluded, Air France-KLM would become a commercial and operational partner of the Italian airline, within the framework of the consortium led by Certares. At this stage, Air France-KLM is not investing in the capital of ITA. However, the Air France-KLM group could consider taking a minority stake in ITA in the medium term.
ITA Airways and Air France-KLM target America
Conversely, Lufthansa did not hide its disappointment: “from our point of view, our joint offer with MSC was the best solution for ITA”. “Apparently a choice is being made that allows for greater state influence and does not contemplate the full privatization of ITA,” the company commented.
ITA was looking for partners in order to strengthen itself especially in the long-haul. Certares’ network of travel agencies would notably allow it to establish itself further in the United States.
For Air France, which has just appointed Pieter Bootsma, currently Chief Revenue Officer Air France-KLM, as Deputy Managing Director in charge of Strategy for the Air France-KLM group. “These opportunities include in particular an increased presence on the North Atlantic, the axis on which Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic operate the largest joint venture, as well as the possibility of establishing an exclusive partnership between the loyalty programs Flying Blue (Air France-KLM), Sky Miles (Delta Air Lines) and Volare (ITA – one of the largest loyalty programs in Italy), for the benefit of customers of the Italian company.
A weak company
For Laurent Magnin, former president of XL Airways, this operation “makes sense and it is preferable that it is Air France rather than Lufthansa which wins this contract. The history of the Italian pavilion is a bit tricky. Alitalia, at the time, it went very badly and the management of this company was a notorious mismanagement. But this agreement is a good thing, particularly in long-haul. In addition, the Certares fund is involved. And Certares loves France very much. »
For the heiress of Alitalia, “a marriage is the only way to survive, alone she would be doomed to die definitively”, explained to AFP Andrea Giuricin, transport economist at Bicocca University in Milan.
“Every day that passes, it loses money and sees its value reduced,” he notes. But the acquisition of ITA Airways “is not a guarantee for its survival” because, after a busy summer in airports, “many uncertainties hang over the European air sector in the fall, visibility is very reduced “says Andrea Giuricin.
