There was no conspiracy regarding Alitalia aid

The national airline was not penalized compared to Lufthansa and Air France. Indeed, perhaps there was even a special eye: the European sentence arrived late and taxpayers will hardly get their money back

The European Commission’s decision to fine Italy for illegal state aid to Alitalia came somewhat late. The old Alitalia is in fact now a bad company, “a bad company” in extraordinary administration since mid-October 2021 and will hardly be able to repay the money lent by taxpayers, while Ita is a different company as sanctioned by the Commission itself. Some “patriotic” voices raised over alleged different treatment of France and Germany for support of Air France and Lufthansa. But the money given to Alitalia refers to the 2017-2019 period when the air market was doing very well and Alitalia was making a loss. The situation was completely different during the pandemic, when the market collapsed and almost all airlines needed public loans to survive the perfect storm. This was also the case of Lufthansa and Air France which saw billionaire interventions by Germany and France.