Air France-KLM Won’t Revisit ITA Even as It Lauds Consolidation

Air France-KLM Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith signaled he’s unlikely to take another look at Italian carrier ITA Airways, even if the airline comes back on the market in the event of a failed takeover bid by Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Italy is “a difficult market, when you look at the two airports, you look at Milan, you look at Rome, there’s a lot of foreign competition in Milan,” Smith said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday in Dubai at the IATA annual general meeting. “If there were a business case to be had, we would be pursuing it a lot harder.”