There are a lot less airlines today than there were in the late 1980s. AA is also much much much bigger than Pan Am ever was, and occupies a much larger market share for both domestic and international travel.

Alitalia is a tiny piece of the EU airline industry. A better comparison would be if IAG or Lufthansa Group collapsed. If Lufthansa, Swiss, Eurowings, Austrian, and Brussels all were on death row, I think even the EU would step in and prevent a collapse.

I think AA will be fine.