The Italian airline ITA Airways is looking for a partner. The financially stronger, the better. According to local media reports, the former Alitalia partner Delta Air Lines can now imagine buying from ITA Airways. There is a lot at stake.

The Alitalia successor is only a provisional member of the Skyteam for one year, which is dominated by Delta and Air France-KLM. Should Lufthansa acquire a stake in ITA Airways, it would suddenly lose the Italian market in the direction of Star Alliance. Apart from a few connections from the other Skyteam members, there wouldn't be much else to offer in Italy. First and foremost, it's about feeders and connecting flights.

Nobody at Alitalia has wanted to do their shopping voluntarily in recent years. Even Etihad Airways lost interest at some point, which also led to the recent bankruptcy of Alitalia. With the reorganization as ITA Airways, the heap of debt fell in love with the old company. The management assumes, however, that you cannot survive without a great partner. Lastly, Lufthansa roses were sprinkled.

Air France-KLM and Delta want to prevent alliance changes

However, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines also have a keen interest in preventing the crane from entering the country. ITA boss Alfredo Altavilla is of the opinion that you cannot survive standalone. Apparently there is clearly more interest in a participation or even a possible takeover than originally assumed.

Lufthansa is considered to be Altavilla's partner of choice, but Frankfurt am Main is still very cautious. Participation in ITA Airways was categorically ruled out until the very end, but they want to talk about commercial cooperation. Logically, if implemented, this would most likely lead to the Italian carrier joining the Star Alliance.

But that's exactly what Air France-KLM and Delta want to prevent. Most recently, there were real "secret meetings" between the management of the Franco-Dutch and the Italian group. Little is known about the content, but there is speculation that there has been talk of in-depth cooperation and even equity participation.

Lufthansa removed takeover ban

Delta does not seem to be exactly interested in doing common cause with Air France-KLM, because they were already in consortia before the formation of ITA Airways, which were supposed to take over Alitalia. However, nothing came of it in a single attempt. Now one finds the “new Alitalia” particularly attractive and one can certainly imagine direct participation. The newspaper "La Repubblica" writes that a shareholders' agreement with the Italian state could alleviate any concerns of the Americans.

In any case, it seems urgent, because both Delta and Air France-KLM seem to be worried about the Skyteam's market share in Italy. You don't want Lufthansa to get involved. It is not known whether the crane is actually as uninterested as it is shown in public. In any case, Lufthansa has rescheduled the "takeover obstacle" because it was caused by the full repayment of state aid you are free of conditions again. Specifically, this means that Lufthansa could definitely buy shares in ITA Airways or swallow the competitor. Whether Carsten Spohr and his team want that is another piece of paper.

A portrait of the new ITA Airways with this link.