New plan for the Italian national airline: It is to be built on the basis of Alitalia Cityliner - with the help of Lufthansa.
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<p>Italy has had a new government for a week. <a href="https://www.de24.news/"><img class="alignnone size-medium" src="https://www.de24.news/a1/de24.png" alt="© www.de24.news" width="400" height="20" /></a><p> The new Prime Minister Mario Draghi has filled almost every ministry with new people. And an important dossier that he and the many new ministers in the broad coalition government have to resolve promptly: Alitalia.
The Draghi government has a number of hurdles to overcome. 
The European Union made it clear at the end of January that the new Alitalia cannot simply be the old one with a few adjustments.
The newly founded ITA Italia Trasporto Aereo was not allowed to simply take over the brand, clearance and loyalty program as planned.
The old government responded with a vague letter trying to talk Brussels out of the concerns.
Regional airline as a new base
Apparently a new plan is already being worked on in Rome as an alternative to ITA Italia Trasporto Aereo, as the newspapers La Stampa and La Repubblica write. It should satisfy the EU Commission in Brussels and enable Alitalia to be retained as a well-known national airline.
The Draghi government is based on the example of Swiss. After the end of Swissair, Switzerland created a new national airline in 2002 with billions from business and the state – based on the regional subsidiary Crossair.
The new airline based on Alitalia Cityliner is now to be built in Italy.
Pay back government loans
As La Stampa reports, Cityliner is to take over aircraft, real estate, employees, brand, flight and maintenance activities and even the frequent flyer program Mille Miglia from Alitalia in a first step.
The n, in a second step, the regional airline is to be sold to the Ministry of Economics and Finance. This would allow the old airline to repay loans it received from the state.
And then a third step is planned: the resale of the airline to Lufthansa as a strategic investor. Long before the last plans were made, the German airline was repeatedly associated with the Italian national airline and repeatedly showed interest.
Fifth hub in southern Europe
A year ago Lufthansa proposed to enter into a close partnership with Alitalia.
The two airlines would coordinate their flight schedules, take up codeshare flights and coordinate sales. Later Frankfurt expected a change of the alliance from Skyteam to Star Alliance.
At that time, equity participation was only an issue at a later stage. Now Alitalia is to be reorganized leaner, which was always a condition for Lufthansa.
The re is definitely a fundamental interest in Germany. Lufthansa manager Jörg Eberhart stated in January 2020: At the four existing hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich, you can no longer grow indefinitely. “We therefore need a fifth hub, one in southern Europe.”
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https://www.aerotelegraph.com/rom-bringt-lufthansa-bei-alitalia-wieder-ins-spiel
establishment based Cityliner Rome brings Lufthansa play Alitalia
