British Airways aims at Ita and challenges Lufthansa in the bid to enter the capital of the newco
The Lufthansa Germans want to get to the wedding with Ita by the end of the year (we talked about it here) but someone could oppose this marriage. British Airways, in fact, that together with Iberia it is in fact the third largest scheduled airline in Europe, it seems willing to compete for the Italian carrier.
To support it is Umberto Mancini on The messenger, according to which, in recent months, the leaders of the group have had a series of informal contacts with the president of Ita Alfredo Altavilla. After all, Iag, the group to which British Airways belongs, already controls Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and other smaller companies, with a prominent position in United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland.
The company, which owns approximately 573 aircraft and covers 270 destinations, seems willing to grow and would have no problem integrating Ita’s commercial offer.
There is still nothing official, and the slowdown in travel imposed by the pandemic makes the prospects more uncertain. Lufthansa, however, it would be ready to arrive up to 40% of the capital and make Fiumicino a new hub of reference, without penalizing Milan.
In this two-player match, he risks remaining on the sidelines on Delta Airlines-Air France tandem: the US carrier, which mostly uses Boeing, would have difficulty integrating with Ita’s choice to prefer Airbuses, while Air France is suffering the consequences of Covid and has not yet managed to repay the aid received from the state, remaining effectively short of funds to shop in Italy.
Meanwhile, the National Air Transport Federation he announced that he hopes that the choice of Ita’s commercial-industrial partner will “materialize within the first half of 2022 in order to consolidate the development of the industrial plan, confirm the expected assumptions and give a more solid perspective to the future of the flag carrier At the moment they remain network inefficiencies that only through the synergy with a solid partner of adequate size can they find a solution “.
#Ita #British #Airways #challenges #Lufthansa #Iag #group #studies #newco #dossier