Delta buys into yet another airline
 

https://www.avionews.com/item/121991...he-shares.html

"What is going to be outlined is the business plan of the new Alitalia, which will see the US air carrier Delta participate with about 10% of shares which can rise up to 40% over the years"

That partial article (is there a way to see more that I'm missing?) seems to indicate it is just rumor and nothing resembling a done deal.

Here's another one:

https://atwonline.com/airlines/easyj...vestment-talks

"On March 18, before the easyJet announcement, Italian media reported that FS CEO Gianfranco Battisti had been in Atlanta over the weekend for talks with Delta CEO Ed Bastian and that the US carrier was ready to take an initial 10% stake in Alitalia."

Looks like the deal with EasyJet fell apart yesterday. Probably not good for us as it would allow Delta to reduce are transatlantic flying if they desire.

Please elaborate

When you code share, it's naturally advantageous to split flying on routes.
When you own a large share of another airline and JV, you effectively become the same airline on those routes, just two separate arms. Except one entity has lower operating costs, and you can put CAPEX for growth on the other entity all while splitting the revenue. I.E., incentives DL management to place growth between Italy-US on Alitalia operated flights.

We have a minimum percentage of flying across the Atlantic in the contract. Not going to look it up but it’s around 48%. That percentage Is against the combined total of AF, KLM and Alitalia flights. If the current number is 100 flights total we must fly 48 minimum. If Alitalia shuts down and they account for 10 flights a day the company could drop our flying down to 43 flights.

An airline vacated the market and Delta reduces its operations. That’s one way to play it.