Lufthansa showed particularly staying power with Ita Airways, because despite the fact that they lost out on the first attempt - at that time still in cooperation with MSC - they persisted until all other interested parties lost interest. The Alitalia successor is certainly not a bubbling source of income, because the Italians are deep in the red.

Many corporations have already “burned their fingers” on the predecessor airline. Examples would be the Italian Post, Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways. Both Alitalia and Ita Airways have already cost taxpayers countless billions of euros. Lufthansa is obviously of the opinion that the Italian carrier can be turned into a profitable aviation company and has already announced new hires and expansion in a press release.

However, the "deal" agreed between the Italian government and Lufthansa has yet to be examined under competition law. Whether the EU Commission will wave this through or whether a court could later shake everything up is currently pure speculation. Just recently, the EU court declared the state aid that Germany had granted to be illegal. The ECJ ruled that the aid granted by Italy to carriers with a local operating license due to the corona pandemic was illegal because of discrimination based on origin. So it cannot be completely ruled out that antitrust problems could arise, but the Italian market is considerably more competitive than the German market.

The unions Vereinigung Cockpit and Independent Flight Attendants Organization see Lufthansa's entry into Ita Airways as divided. On the one hand, it is hoped that there will be opportunities in the growth of the group of companies, and on the other hand, there are doubts due to the lack of profitability of Ita Airways and the increasing complexity of the group as a whole.

"On the one hand, the growing strength through higher market shares of the Lufthansa Group in Europe is positive news for employees," says VC President Stefan Herth. “Joining ITA shows perseverance and is entrepreneurially courageous for Lufthansa. However, the complexity within the group is taking on increasingly threatening proportions for economic stability. It is central to competitiveness that the Group – as announced in the 2020 Annual Report – strives for leaner structures again in the future. One thing is clear, no matter how this adventure ends – the employees should not foot the bill”.

On the part of the Ufo union, its chairman, Daniel Kassa Mbuambi, adds: "For us, it is crucial that the employee groups in the various airlines of the group are not played off against each other. There must not and will not be a competition to the bottom with us. We will pay very close attention to this and coordinate closely with the other unions."