The chief executives of Air France and KLM on Tuesday ruled out an early entry by Alitalia, the majority state-owned Italian carrier, to their planned merger.
They also unveiled a phased strategy for approaching US regulators with the aim of gaining early approval for their merger, while maintaining existing separate antitrust immunities with their respective US partners.
In a yet to be determined stage, they could seek backing to tie their US partners - Delta Air Lines (Air France) and Northwest Airlines (KLM) - as well as the more loosely allied Continental Airlines into a five-way alliance.
Such a move could depend on the outcome of talks that started recently between Washington and Brussels over a US/European Union open aviation area.
"What happens afterwards remains to be seen," said Leo van Wijk, KLM chief executive. "We all know this will not be the end situation in the business."
The merger filing in the US would be made to the justice department. The deal would have to be reviewed by the US transportation department, however, for its wider impact on the US aviation market and Air France and KLM's links with their US partners.
Air France has antitrust immunity for its alliance with Delta, while KLM has similar immunity for its joint venture with Northwest Airlines.
Merger sets scene for aviation changes
Jean-Cyril Spinetta and Leo van Wijk are at ease in each other's company, as they discuss their ground-breaking plans for a merger of Air France and KLM to form Europe's biggest airline.
Go there
Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chief executive of Air France, said Alitalia, which is 62.4 per cent state-owned, must be privatised before a merger could be agreed with the enlarged Air France-KLM.
Alitalia has said it hopes it could be ready to join the planned Franco-Dutch carrier by April, when Air France and KLM plan to complete their merger.
Mr Spinetta and Mr van Wijk yesterday set clear hurdles to a three-way merger.
Not only would Alitalia first have to be privatised, but it must also show significant progress in its restructuring, aimed at ending five years of operating losses. The Italian government is preparing a decree to accelerate the stalled privatisation.




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