Fear of competition: Lufthansa is vying for Alitalia

Just before deciding on the future of the bankrupt Alitalia Lufthansa is trying to secure a participation in the Italian airline. The Lufthansa Group is ready "to offer a high amount as (... ...) other possible partners" of Alitalia, Lufthansa Board of Management Harry Hohmeister and Strategy Director William Willms promoted in a letter to the head of the Italian State Railways, the Alitalia rescue coordinated.

"In the cases of Austrian and Swiss Airlines, we have demonstrated our ability," wrote Hohmeister and Willms, "to integrate iconic European aviation (...) brands into our network and create value for everyone." The letter is available to SPIEGEL. First, the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" published extracts from it.

Since Alitalia's bankruptcy declaration in the spring of 2017, Lufthansa has repeatedly shown interest in participating. After all, Italy is one of the most important European markets for the crane line. The Germans have had a daughter on the spot for years: the Air Dolomiti.

Deadline ends on 21st November

However, Lufthansa has always made a possible entry into a substantial job cuts and a reduction in the fleet of Alitalia - which has been kept alive for years with state loans. In addition, Lufthansa stated that they also do not want to become partners of the state. However, according to the ideas of the government in Rome, the state railway is to become a shareholder of Alitalia in the future: together with Atlantia, the infrastructure group of the Benetton family. An airline should also be a partner.

On 21 November, the offer period, which has been postponed several times, ends until the interested parties can submit offers. Lastly, Lufthansa's rival Delta looked like Alitalia's partner. The Americans offered investments of 100 million euros.

Lufthansa wants to top this now. As the newspaper "Corriere della Sera" writes, the Germans offer 150 million euros. In addition, they were willing to engage in a much lower personnel and fleet reduction than they had previously requested, the newspaper wrote. Among other things, Lufthansa has proposed to employ pilots of the Alitalia regional line Cityliner with its own subsidiary Air Dolomiti.

Italy is important as a big market and Milan as a hub

"Lufthansa can not just let that happen Alitalia and the two lines then offer joint connections on a large scale, "said the Hamburg aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt the SPIEGEL." Italy as a large market and a hub such as Milan are far too important. "

Whether the offer of Lufthansa is sufficient to outdo Delta, however, is questionable. According to "Corriere della Sera", the Italian government's proposed job cuts are still too high.

A Lufthansa spokesman said on request: "We can imagine a stake in Alitalia - but only on a restructured Alitalia." A commercial partnership with the Italians is also conceivable. The spokesman did not want to comment on the letter of the board Hohmeister and the extent of possible participation.