The Lufthansa aviation group responds with optimism to the European Commission's skepticism regarding the acquisition of 41% of the Italian flag carrier ITA Airways. The German airline avoids comments on the words of the president of the European antitrust, Margrethe Vestager, renewing its confidence in the favorable outcome of the ongoing negotiations with Brussels, maintaining that by July 2024 it will obtain the green light for the privatization of ITA. 

This is what the German business newspaper "Handelsblatt" reports in an article entitled "European Commissioner Vestager reiterates the EU's criticism of Lufthansa's participation in ITA". In fact, yesterday the president of the EU competition commission stated: "In a case like this" of ITA-Lufthansa "we have competition problems. There is a risk that prices will rise and frequencies will fall", underlining that "it is up to the companies to illustrate how to prevent this from happening". 

In recent days ITA and Lufthansa had presented a new package of remedies to get the green light for the wedding. However, Brussels still considers them insufficient: the antitrust authorities believe that the merger between the two companies could create monopolies or positions of strength, particularly on long-haul routes to the United States and Canada. On these routes, the most profitable, Berlin and Rome do not want to give in, but Europe is asking for a few more sacrifices.

On the same topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.