Finally, and although conditioned by the limits that Brussels has placed on our Ministry of Economy, the acquisition of the first 41% of the shares of Ita Airways by Lufthansa will take place. It took 13 months of waiting, of which more than seven were spent in negotiation, because a European commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, was obsessed with the fact that this operation would have limited competition. Who knows where the same commissioner was when two low-cost companies were calling the shots in national air traffic. It is not exactly water under the bridge, let us say that Vestager had it easy because previous governments had a completely anti-Italian vision of commercial aviation, tainted by decades of Alitalia crises and disputes to create the new company. We remember, in fact, the imposition of discontinuity with a name change and the long controversies that followed.
Looking ahead, within a year at least three more companies will open in Italy, one in Sicily, another between Emilia Romagna and Romania, the third in Marche, and this is certainly an excellent sign that refutes all of Vestager’s beliefs.
Returning to Italy-Lufthansa, the agreement with the EU provides for three distinct stages, the first of which begins with a capital increase of 325 million euros for the sale of 41% of the airline. Lufthansa will then have the possibility of acquiring 90% and, in 2033, acquiring the last 10%, having invested a total of 829 million euros. The programme will be implemented within four months, after which statutory changes will be made to the company’s structure, a new Board of Directors will be elected, of which three members (two plus the president) will be chosen by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and two by Lufthansa (one plus the CEO). All this will be possible without European interference if certain conditions proposed to the European Competition Authority by the airline owners, namely Lufthansa and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, are met: the now famous transfer of between 15 and 17 slots at Milan’s Forlanini airport, which means giving up around thirty flights, as well as allowing another airline, for at least three years, to activate flights on routes that would have been – according to the Commissioner – without competition because they were saturated by Italy and Lufthansa. The group will then have to compete less with other airlines on the routes between Rome Fiumicino and certain destinations in the United States and Canada, in cities such as Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, etc., or find two competitors for each route willing to operate flights with stopovers, which include a journey of no more than two hours and which do not entail an increase in the total duration of the flight of no more than three hours. These are technicalities, since the preference for one airline or another is determined by other parameters such as the cost of tickets, the modernity (and comfort) of the aircraft and others, but they are also limitations that sound absurd in a globalized context and in a market, that of commercial aviation, which grows by 12% annually.
As regards co-marketing and code-sharing programmes, Ita Airways will move from the group of companies that form the Sky Team alliance to Star Alliance, with the entry of the Italians into the transatlantic joint venture that Lufthansa has with the American airline United Airlines and Air Canada (i.e. A-plus-plus). Pending the press conference organised after the formal announcement that should arrive this morning from Brussels, in Rome, at the Treasury, with the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti, the CEO of Ita Airways Antonino Turicchi and the CEO of the Lufthansa group Carsten Spohr, we allow ourselves an observation.
The history of commercial aviation has always seen moments when companies have merged and split up. The two years of the pandemic have taught us a few things, such as the need to keep crews active and not to quickly get rid of the most experienced pilots and then rush to put young people in the cockpit without the necessary experience; but also that only with a large fleet can we face technological renewal plans and aggressive markets such as China or the Arab world. The Lufthansa group is now present – but does not dominate – in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Italy (already with Air Dolomiti), Germany and Greece (airport management became German after the 2009 financial crisis). But with 12% growth in the sector, there is room for everyone and for all markets, from business flights at premium prices and service to low-cost flights. Because it is the customers who choose. And what happened between Brussels and Italy-Lufthansa has, in fact, only made us waste our time trying – in vain – to do a favour to the Irish, the English and the French.
