Assovolo Trasporto aereo on the Lufthansa-ITA Airways acquisition has made some clarifications in a press release: "The ITA Airways affair is far from sailing in clear skies: the news of the day is that the finalization of the sale to Lufthansa has ended up in a ford one step away from the finish line. The reasons for the stop provided to the press are nebulous and, even if taken as true, very little credible. In addition to the many legal irregularities perpetrated to date, which could have induced Lufthansa to more than one change of heart, there is the contractual imperative of maintaining management in Italian hands - in exchange for the German outlay - to avoid financial collapse at the end of the year. The Germans are being asked to have their cake and eat it: it is not at all surprising that the affair has run aground. Let's therefore take a flight over some known inconsistencies, to land on a new paradoxical detail that is added to the affair.

ITA Airways was born on October 15, 2021 thanks to a transfer contract signed the day before and based, in theory, on the results of the negotiations of the Government of the time (Draghi) with the European Community. A contract written on the basis of the indications contained in the letter of the EU DG Competition of September 10, 2021. These indications -indications, not rules- have been interpreted from time to time in the most imaginative ways, adapted to the political context, pulled from one side or the other, sometimes considering them binding, other times a little less so. Furthermore, although the letter in question is prior to the launch of ITA, there is no evidence of any objection by the monitoring trustee. Contrary to the common opinion that EU bureaucrats are always portrayed as attentive and watchful, this time they all seem to be distracted. The most obvious example of mutability, detailed so far, is the initial setting as a transfer of assets and compendiums, which became a transfer of a branch of business with a specific decree-law 'ad aziendam', to exclude a posteriori the application of article 2112 of the Civil Code for the protection of workers (a transfer contract which in turn could be null and void since it does not appear to have been registered in the Chamber of Commerce as a transfer of a branch of business). This was necessary to avoid the loss of all take-off and landing rights (slots), the most valuable asset for an airline; rights that can be transferred to other operators only in the case of a transfer of a branch of business, and not as individual assets.

This little law ad aziendam is being examined by the Constitutional Court, before the possible next step at the European Court; staying on the subject of proverbs, the devil has made the pots but not the lids this time too. Another aspect that needs to be clarified, although an embarrassing secrecy persists on the appraisal of the value, concerns the overall evaluation of an enormous quantity of goods and compendiums (a list of more than 250 pages) at the figure of one Euro plus VAT, the price at which the sale of the Aviation branch to ITA took place. All this constitutes only a minimal part of the irregularities committed so far.

A few days ago, a new event was added, celebrated with great fanfare by the media, which constitutes a virtuous and ass-licking circumvention of European indications, in perfect Italian style. The now famous letter from the EU DG Competition established that the customer package, called 'Millemiglia', was to be sold to third parties and could not end up in the hands of ITA in compliance with the constraint of economic discontinuity. An indication so important that it was repeated several times in the text. The company Alitalia Loyalty - which held the Millemiglia AZ customer database - was therefore sold to Trenitalia (also owned by the State) while ITA created a new program, called 'Volare'. So far, so good. Now that bundle of data, which went out the door, comes back in through the window. In the jubilation of the economic press - when you say the controllers of power -, the announcement of the status match between Trenitalia's Millemiglia and ITA Airways' Volare. All this highlights how Europe is always interpreted based on the context of the moment and specific needs, in defiance of indications and constraints that no one controls. Exactly as with other events in the spotlight these days, if the rules are convenient, they are asked for absolute respect with the refrain: 'Europe said so...', if they are annoying, they are clumsily tried to change them. And if someone dares to point out, even if they are bodies constitutionally appointed to do so, they receive a flood of mud. Given this picture of desolate bankruptcy, from a legal perspective, it seems completely obvious that the imposition on the Germans to leave the management of ITA Airways to those who have crushed it up to now, may have contributed to generating the unexpected (?) stop of Lufthansa".

See for details AVIONEWS.