One of the first concrete consequences of the entry of Air France/KLM into SAS was the announcement of a flight with the initials SK from Copenhagen to Atlanta, which is, together with New York JFK, the main reference hub for the airlines Skyteam alliance in North America.
We will have to expect something similar as we go along ITA Airways and Lufthansa will work on network integration after the green light for the entry of the Germans into the Italian carrier and coinciding with the transfer of ITA from Skyteam to Star Alliance.
The Italian company has a route map of some importance in North America, something in South America and little else in the rest of the world. At a global level, therefore, the ‘points of reference’ for Italian passengers they are not expected to change significantlyalso because (precisely in view of the agreement with Lufthansa and entry into the Star Alliance) in the last year ITA has already started connections to the alliance’s main hubs in North America: Washington, Chicago, San Francisco (which are United hubs) and Toronto (which it is for Air Canada).
We’re definitely missing a flight to Newark, which is the most important airport on the US East Coast for United. In truth, a few years ago, Alitalia flew there. Then, with spending cuts and so on, the route was deemed redundant, with Newark being about thirty miles from JFK.
The most likely thing is that, most likely in view of summer 2025, ITA decides to ‘shift’ one of its three daily connections to New York JFK beyond Queens, Manhattan and the Hudson River, making Newark Liberty one of its New York destinations to allow passengers transiting through the Big Apple to re-embarking with United (like they do today at JFK on Delta) to reach their final destination.
THEn Asia, the role of Delhi and Tokyo as transit hubs will increasegiven that on the first Italian passengers arriving from Rome with ITA will be able to use the Asian network of Air India (and in this sense the profound renewal of the fleet and on-board product underway in the Indian company will have greater relevance for us) and on the according to passengers arriving in Haneda with the ITA A350 they will be able to easily continue their journey to the Far East with a single ticket and a single check-in with All Nippon Airways.
Instead, they will change more significantly, those that today are the ‘reference points’ for holders of the Volare frequent flyer card who intend to make a stopover in Europe during a medium or long haul flight. In the last decades, the hubs through which you can pass for a single check-in when departing from Italy and then finding your bags at your destination were Paris Charles De Gaulle, Amsterdam Schipol andto a much lesser extent, Madrid (with Air Europa, also in Skyteam).
With entry into Star Alliancefor which the timing will in any case be around the year, the European ‘ports of call’ favored by Italian passengers will first of all become those of the Lufthansa Group companies: Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels.
The first three are in fact global hubs, while Vienna may be of interest to travellers headed to North America and the Far East And Brussels for those heading to Africaseen in a very extensive network in the ‘dark continent’ of the home carrier, Brussels Airlines.
Outside the Lufthansa Groupwill inevitably take on greater importance for Italian passengers who are members of the Volare programme European hubs like Lisbonfor connections to the Americas, and Istanbul for those towards Asia and Africa but also Australia, given that Turkish Airlines put its first foot in Oceania a few months ago, starting to connect Istanbul with Sydney.
