The management of the Alitalia successor ITA Airways is increasingly in favor of the competitor Lufthansa and is now hoping to be "accepted" into their group of companies. In an interview with Handelsblatt, company boss Alfredo Altavilla literally advertises being taken over.

“It would be wrong to remain independent because we would always be too small compared to the three large airline groups operating in Europe. We are a pretty bachelorette who has many admirers, ”the manager told Handelsblatt. He hopes that Lufthansa will be interested in buying the Alitalia successor.

According to the Italian media, there should be initial talks with Air France-KLM at the same time. The Franco-Dutch company had a stake in its predecessor Alitalia, but at some point it lost interest and made little contribution. Most recently there were supposed to have been meetings that were portrayed as downright secret meetings in the local media.

What is clear, however, is that the ITA management has recognized that without a strong partner you are only able to survive to a limited extent and that, in the Alitalia tradition, you would soon be flying high losses. The Italian market is highly competitive and Easyjet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Blue Air and Volotea are particularly well represented on the short and medium-haul routes.

Altavilla hopes that as part of an international group of companies you can fly into the black in 2023. He didn't name a favorite that you'd like to be taken over by. But the hint is pretty clear: Ideally, it should be Lufthansa. Evidently, the manager only says: "beautiful and rich" should be the future partner.

And then he is already throwing roses: He thinks the Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines business models are particularly good. Altavilla justifies this as follows: "Because Lufthansa has succeeded in integrating other smaller companies, similar to ITA Airways now, with great success". He also sends a kind of “application letter” to CEO Carsten Spohr, because he has “great respect” for him.

Lufthansa announced a few weeks ago that talks about a commercial cooperation could be held. According to Carsten Spohr, this would be the first step and we will see how these develop. In this context, it is also interesting that ITA Airways was temporarily accepted into the Skyteam for only one year.

Altavilla said repeatedly that this was necessary in order to be flexible when looking for a partner. The airlines of the Lufthansa Group are organized in the Star Alliance while Air France and KLM, for example, are in the Skyteam. Independently of this, the ITA announced on Wednesday that they will also be part of the Skyteam's freight department in the future.