The new Italian state airline ITA will initially focus on Milan Linate Airport. This has a weighty background, because Alitalia has already lost a lot of slots here and you would run the risk of no longer being the top dog at this inner-city airport.

In general, the flight offer in Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate should be largely balanced. The northern Italian airport will temporarily play a bigger role and will be a kind of “parallel hub” for at least a few months. From this it can be deduced that ITA wants to fly as many slots as possible.

Nonetheless, the new establishment should, at the behest of the EU Commission, significantly reduce its presence in Linate. Alitalia's market share was around 66 percent. The competition watchdogs want this to be trimmed to a maximum of 33 percent. It follows that Alitalia has to give up around half of the take-off and landing rights. Of course, you don't want that. The government was able to negotiate a compromise: This means that ITA can take over 85 percent of the Alitalia slots in Linate and 43 percent of those held by the "old carrier" in Rome-FCO. You have to reapply for all other take-off and landing rights.