45 employees of the regional airline and Alitalia subsidiary Cityliner will also be laid off, the Roman daily newspaper “La Repubblica” reported on Tuesday. Alitalia employees will only receive support payments until October 31. The unions are demanding an extension until the end of 2025. Alitalia’s successor ITA Airways, which is now to be taken over by AUA’s parent company Lufthansa, is to pay for this.
Lufthansa is allowed to board
The airline ITA Airways emerged from the chronically loss-making Alitalia, which went bankrupt in 2017. The successor, founded in 2020, started operations in autumn 2021.
Last Wednesday, following lengthy negotiations, the EU competition authority gave the green light for Lufthansa to take an initial 41 percent stake in Alitalia’s successor. After several attempts, Lufthansa has thus achieved its goal of growing in its second most important foreign market following the USA. The two other European aviation groups IAG and Air France-KLM also want to strengthen their position through acquisitions.
