German airline group Lufthansa is planning on taking over Italy’s relatively new national carrier ITA Airways by the mid-2020s. Lufthansa, ITA Airways, and the Italian government are currently undergoing negotiations regarding the deal, and are expected to come to a decision within the month.
Preliminary reports indicate that Lufthansan will acquire an initial 40% stake in ITA Airways, a transition expected to come with a €200 to €250 million price tag, or $220 to $270 million, per AeroTime, an online periodical covering the aviation and aerospace industry. It is assumed that the Italian airline will be fully acquired by the German airline group by 2025 or 2026, on the condition that ITA Airways manages to break even.
Lufthana's officially submitted its bid for ITA Airways to the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance on January 18 2023, stating in its official announcement that he negotiations “would primarily focus on the form of a possible equity investment, the commercial and operational integration of ITA into the Lufthansa Airline Group, as well as resulting synergies.”
ITA Airways is the successor to Italy’s former national carrier Alitalia, which went bankrupt in 2021. Since ITA’s creation in October 2021, Lufthansa has expressed in interesting to buying a stake in the company. “For Lufthansa Group, Italy is the most important market outside of its home markets and the US,” said the German airline in an official announcement. “Italy's importance for both business and private travel lies in its strong export-oriented economy and status as one of Europe's top vacation spots.”
Italy’s national carrier ended 2022 on a sour note: it had a net loss of €486 million, or $536 million, despite revenues of over €1.5 billion, or $1.6 billion. ITA Airway’s management said these net losses were no cause for concern, as they happened within the company’s “start-up” phase.
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, The Christian Science Monitor, and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.