Ita-Lufthansa, this is how the wedding is approved: renunciation of 22 slots at Linate and agreement with EasyJet
“There’s still something to be ironed out, let’s see. After all, they are the referees, we play the match, let’s see.” Thus Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, on the sidelines of a political event at the League headquarters in Varese, commented on the meeting with Margrethe Vestagher, vice-president of the European Commission, which took place in Brussels in view of the wedding between Ita and Lufthansa.
Wedding on which more details arrive today in Corriere della Sera, according to which “Lufthansa and Ita Airways propose to sacrifice 11 pairs of slots per day that they hold at Milan Linate airport — equal to 22 flights, in both directions — as part of the package of “remedies” requested by the EU Antitrust to give the green light to the agreement.
Again according to the Corriere della Sera, “the two companies would also be in “advanced” negotiations with easyJet, identified as the “remedy taker”, that is, the person who will have to take over where, according to the EU, the two betrothed would become monopolists”.
“It’s no secret that we would like the slots that Ita and Lufthansa will have to give up and we expect to receive several of them”, Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, recently confided to Corriere. The manager’s hope “is that they are a sufficient number to allow us open the base in Linate: the airport fits perfectly with our plans”.