BlackBerryAddict

Alitalia is not renewing the partnership with AF/KL when it comes up for renewal in January 2017. They say they do not get enough benefits from it, and want to concentrate on the Italian market.

Clearly an Etihad influence, but one wonders how far they will take this. Would they leave SkyTeam altogether?

bgriz18

That is interesting. Maybe they will leave SkyTeam and align more with Air Berlin perhaps too?

AlicorporateUK

Etihad is clearly behind this change of direction and even the alleged strategy of focusing on the Italian market doesn't make any sense simply because Alitalia will not have any profits from a reinforced presence on the domestic market. In my opinion, this is the first step of a wider plan, which will see AZ leaving the AF-KL-DL trans-Atlantic joint-venture and eventually the Sky Team alliance.

G

CXBA

it was about time, the partnership was in my opinion lots of talk/expectations but very limited outcome, plus there was always the lingering doubt that AF wanted simply to get AZ for its connecting/catchment area and then close it, or at least that was the feeling of a large part of Italian political and business elite. EY takeover has not been met with comparable hostility or skepticism, but now they have to demonstrate they can deliver on their promises to build a better, successful airline.

Dieuwer

Jab at AF/KL:

http://www.ft.com/fastft/325692/alit...lm-partnership

Wow. Big words.

TPJ

Hmmm - strange as EY code-shares with KL on AMS-AUH and used to use AF leased aircraft to fly CDG-AUH...

BlackBerryAddict

Not as big as the words the US carriers are using against the ME3 - of which Etihad is of course one. And AFKL and LH have come out in support of the US carriers - so if AZ (EY) thinks that they don't have the freedom to restructure (I don't know what the partnership agreement entailed) they might well pull out of it.

AZ also pulled out of the Association of European Airlines recently, together with IAG and Airberlin.

uclacolumbiaunc

if they are ending the partnership with AF/KL, then it will eventually leave skyteam.

irishguy28

It's not really strange...and all of you are reading a bit much into this.

I know the FT says that Alitalia is "ending" the partnership - but, rather, they are merely allowing the partnership to expire at its planned end; they are not interested in renewing it. They are not actively cutting the partnership, or ending it early - they are merely saying they will not do anything to extend it.

And, if you've been following the AZ saga over the last 5-or-more years, it's not really surprising. AFKL had, as recently as 2 years ago, a 25% stake in Alitalia. As AZ was sinking into further distress, AFKL wanted to take more - but the Italians resisted, as they feared that AFKL were merely going to funnel all Italian passengers via CDG (and to a lesser extent via AMS), reducing the slate of longhaul destinations served direct from MIL or ROM. With the Italian State and Shareholders resisting the AFKL approach, and as Alitalia was further restructured, further shares were issued, but AFKL announced they would inject no more money, meaning that their holding was watered down to just 7%.

So, even before Etihad got onto the share register, AZ had already tilted away from AFKL and resisted the call to become mostly just a feeder network for AF at Paris.

None of the above, however, means that Alitalia is likely to leave Skyteam. Alitalia needs all the passengers it can get - it will continue to wish to receive alliance transfer passengers. The announcement today, however, just shows that Alitalia wants to focus on completing its passengers' journeys itself, as much as possible, rather than merely providing good feed for AF at CDG.

AlicorporateUK

@irishguy28 - I do more or less agree with all you're saying, however...

...Alitalia would have never even thought to announce something like that without the backing of Etihad, which I believe has a wider plan for the Italian carrier already in the pipeline. As we speak, though, I can't see how AZ may be able to complete its passengers' journeys itself with a nearly insignificant number of long-haul aircraft currently in the fleet.

In any case, exciting times ahead: AF/KL would still attract ex-Italy passengers big style simply because AZ has a very poor network.

G

irishguy28

No, I agree; Alitalia is now entirely reliant on the funds injected by Etihad.

But even before Etihad became their knight in shining armour, Alitalia had clearly distanced itself from AFKL - they were apparently willing to go to the wall rather than become a mere feeder for AFKL. At least, there was huge resistance on the part of the Italians to initially allowing Air France to expand its control over the airline. (And with good reason, I feel. I couldn't see AF opening new direct routes from Italy when it would have suited them far better to bolster their own flights from CDG).

Then, AFKL got the hump and walked away. (AZ may have caved to a similar, or even worse, offer from AFKL when things got really bad).

But to say that this news bears the hand of Etihad alone - that is not true. Whoever the "rescuer" was - as long as it was not AFKL themselves - this was bound to happen. Had it been IAG, or Lufthansa, for instance - I would wager that the agreement would have been torn up already!!!

Gargoyle

Overall Skyteam Europe has been weakening in the past year. The legacies have been spinning their intra-EU flights to non sky-team LCC subsidaries (Transavia, Darwin), making booking and earning much harder for those of us who are DL based. This is just another expected step in the breakdown.

ariel_sjo

And KLM wants to get rid off Air France due to their bad results... The french are in risk to be "forever alone".

CXBA

Link? Official confirmation?

ariel_sjo

http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/04/30/air...ssible-report/