In Southern Europe, Until now, Air France-KLM has had its eyes on ITA. The previous Italian government had selected consortium formed by Certares, Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM. On 31 August last year, the latter was granted exclusive rights to negotiate a stake in the company's capital. But that was all under Mario Draghi's government. Since then, the majority in Italy has changed and the new Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, seems less in favour of this rapprochement.
On 1 November, the Italian Ministry of the Economy announced that the end of exclusivity obligations granted to Certares, Air France-KLM and Delta in the sale of the airline. And resurrected all hopes in the Lufthansa camp. Especially as the MSC/Lufthansa Group consortium was initially considered the favourite.. Lufthansa has confirmed its interest in the Italian airline.
The ITA puzzle
For its part, Certares has indicated that it is working on analysing ITA's data in order to arrive "rapidly" at a "binding and definitive" offer, according to the transalpine newspapers. For its part, Air France-KLM "takes note" of the end of the exclusivity period for the acquisition of ITA Airways. The company is "reviewing its options concerning the Italian air market pending further information from the Italian government".. An ITA spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency.
In this context, we can explain the interest declared at the end of last week by Ben Smiththe Chairman of Air France-KLM, for a stake in TAP Air Portugal. A possible alternative with this company in the process of being (re)privatised.
An alternative with TAP Air Portugal?
TAP was privatised in 2019. In 2020, however, the Portuguese government acquired the stakes of American David Neeleman (founder of Jetblue, Westjet and Azul) and Humberto Pedrosa in the midst of the Covid crisis.
A few weeks ago, Portugal's infrastructure minister, Pedro Nuno Santos, has relaunched the privatisation of TAP Air Portugalthe only way, according to the Minister, to save the carrier. The Portuguese company lost $1.5 billion in 2021. An integration within an airline group would therefore be the best solution. Especially as it has a number of advantages, including a particularly well-developed network in Africa and Brazil.
The interest shown by Air France-KLM would enable the Franco-Dutch group to find an even stronger foothold in Mediterranean Europe and South America. Except that Lufthansa is also in the running. With one advantage in favour of the German carrier: the two airlines have been working together for many years within the Star Alliance.
