Saying ‘arrivederci’ is hard to do

▶ Etihad’s three-year relationship with Alitalia may not be over

Saying goodbye to good friends is always difficult, especially when it’s to a fiery Italian.

The news that Etihad Airways has submitted a non-binding bid for Alitalia, put up for sale by the Italian government in May, suggests it is not yet finished with the troubled carrier, in which it owns a 49 per cent stake, and that rumours of the Abu Dhabi carrier’s international retreat may be exaggerated.

Three months ago, Etihad seemed poised to call time on Alitalia, after the airline’s employees rejected a €2 billion (Dh8.5bn) recapitalisation deal, putting the airline into administration.

The continued woes of Alitalia and other subsidiaries last year led Etihad to re-consider its international investment strategy, which had seen the airline buy strategic stakes in international airlines as a means of competing with regional rivals Emirates and Qatar Airways.

That international strategy seemed to have been put in reverse in the past couple of months; Etihad walked away in June from a mooted airline tieup with Germany’s Tui Group. Last week, it announced the sale of its shareholding in Switzerland’s Darwin Airline,

Etihad likely plans to play it smart internationally, trimming where needed but retaining interests where it sees value

leading some to think that Alitalia or Air Berlin would be next out the door.

Etihad’s apparent continued interest in Alitalia proves a temporary corrective to the view that it is preparing to unspool its international investments one by one; as analysts last week noted, Darwin represented a tiny portion of Etihad’s overall portfolio and offered little in the way of precedent for future sales.

The offer submitted by Etihad, while ultimately non-binding, suggests Etihad intends to play it smart with its international portfolio, trimming where needed but retaining interests where it sees long-term value.

Of course, it is also possible to read too much into such an offer; John Strickland, an aviation analyst at the London-based JLS Consulting, suggests that Etihad and others have submitted offers purely as an information-gathering exercise to stake a claim to Alitalia’s most attractive divisions, ahead of a possible liquidation sale.

Whatever the case may be, it appears that with both the Alitalia sale and its wider strategic review, Etihad will patiently assess its international operations for value, before saying “arrivederci” one last time.