Airlines Lufthansa Group in talks to buy Alitalia

Some weeks after Lufthansa abandoned the negotiations for Austria’s AirBerlin subsidiary FlyNiki, the German Airline could take over another bankrupt European airline. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports, the German carrier has entered into final negotiations to take over Alitalia. The newspaper reports, Lufthansa has made a first offer to take over Alitalia’s flight operations for around €300 million which was rejected. Lufthansa plans to cut around one quarter of the 8000 jobs in Alitalia’s flight operations. Lufthansa does not plan to buy Alitalia’s ground handling services with its 3500 employees. Media reports, the Italian government demands €500 million for the entire flight operations.

Some weeks ago, Italian media reported that Lufthansa Group is the only remaining company offering for the bankrupt Italian national airline. Easyjet and the US investor Cerberus have left negotiations some days before Christmas.

Lufthansa officially announced an interest in creating a “new Alitalia” in October after the Italian carrier field for bankruptcy in May 2017. Lufthansa could integrate Alitalia’s European operations as well as its long haul network into its European low cost carrier Eurowings. After the takeover of parts of Air Berlin and Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter, Eurowings is one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe. A takeover of Alitalia would expand Lufthansa Group’s power in Europe. The group already owns Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines.

Alitalia operates a fleet of over 100 aircraft from its main hubs in Rome Fiumicino Airport and Milano Linate Airport. The carrier is operating a fleet with Boeing 777 and Airbus 330 on long-haul flights and Airbus 319, 320 and 321 on medium haul flights. For its regional fleet, Alitalia has chosen the Brazilian Embraer E195 and E175 aircraft.