Sources earlier this month told Reuters German flagship carrier Lufthansa would soon file an offer for ITA, which officially replaced loss-making Alitalia in 2021.

"Air France will continue to closely monitor the privatization process and hereby reasserts its strong interest to maintain its commercial relationship with ITA, which is a SkyTeam member," Air France-KLM said.

(Reporting by GV De Clercq, editing by Tassilo Hummel)