Once again, it is rumoured that KLM-Air France may be in the running to merge with Alitalia of which it already owns 25%.

Once again, Alitalia is unable to financially succeed on any level despite its own government propping it up in anyway possible.  This is an airline given every advantage in its marketplace and which still fails regularly.

Italy is already posturing itself to show what an outrage it would be for a flag carrier to be taken over by French and Dutch.  But this time those who have money in the airline have signaled that they may find Air France-KLM to be attractive enough to be worthwhile.  Curiously, it was those same people who “rescued” Alitalia from Air France-KLM’s hands.

The merger will probably happen.  It probably will result in the Italian government wringing its hands mightily and trying to extort concessions like guaranteed full employment for all the Alitalia employees for the next 10 years.  Something silly like that will be demanded.

It won’t happen.

The difference this time is that Italy is in a very precarious financial position and has a particularly weak (OK, weaker than usual) government.  It won’t be able to stand up to powerhouse participants in the EU such as France and The Netherlands.  Countries that currently provide a fair degree of solvency to Italy.

But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to plead “Dear Mother of God just complete this merger and erase Alitalia from our memories for once and all time.”

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax