Lufthansa negotiates with Rome to take 90% of Ita Airways

The integration between the Lufthansa group and Ita Airways is moving forward, with the next step scheduled for June to rise to 90% in the capital of the Italian company by the German carrier. In recent days, Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr met in Rome with the Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti to define the strategy since 'it has always been our intention to reach 100%,' Spohr confirmed in this interview with Il Sole 24 Ore. "The next step we have to take, with the support of the Italian government in Washington, is the approval of the joint venture for the North Atlantic (with United Airlines and Canada, ed.) by the American authorities. This is an important requirement to move forward. In general, I think that in order to create synergies, I would prefer to accelerate rather than slow down the acquisition, but without the approval of the American antitrust authorities, obviously the integration is not possible'. The message from the German ally is clear: we need the support of the Italian government to ensure the approval of the dossier that has already been filed in the US at the end of September.

For Ita Airways it is essential to have a solid partner like United on the US market, since it has been operating on its own since the Italian company broke off its partnership with Delta Air Lines: it is necessary to face American competition at a time when the market, especially from abroad to Italy, is still strong. The bet is that the American response will arrive by June to take advantage of the window provided by the integration contract, signed between Lufthansa and the Italian government, to rise to 90% from the current 41% and guarantee the MEF an outlay of €325 million. The further 10% will remain with the Ministry of the Economy. When the approval from the US authorities arrives, Ita Airways already plans to seal this important step with a new connection to Houston from Rome Fiumicino.

"The timing of my visit today (yesterday for those reading,ed) is not coincidental. We are exactly halfway through the integration process, we have set ourselves a target of 18 months, the fastest integration in the history of the Lufthansa Group. I think we are on the right track. So far we have achieved all the milestones: from code-share flights, to lounge access, to loyalty programmes. So we are on the right track'. The latest collaboration, in order of time, is represented by the London Heathrow - Rome Fiumicino flight whose slots have been ceded by Lufthansa to ITA Airways, which adds to the connections with London City Airport, which can still be reached from Milan Linate. "If ITA grows according to its business plan, 2027 will be the first year of full integration and the Italian airline will be at the heart of the Lufthansa Group's profitability targets."

Italy continues to be a dynamic market and in the first nine months saw traffic grow by 4.7 per cent, supported mainly by international traffic (+7.1 per cent). The scarcity of aircraft in the fleets of airlines around the world has increased fares. 'The market is dynamic, but at the moment we are rather limited in capacity due to Pratt & Whitney engine problems,' explains Joerg Eberhart, CEO of Ita Airways. We have a monthly average of 18 short-haul aircraft grounded, ranging from Airbus 320neo, 321neo as well as A220s. That is why Ita is not fully benefiting from this development. The fare increase helps and we are quite satisfied in terms of profitability'. In the first 10 months, the Italian carrier reported revenues up 2.7 per cent to EUR 2.4 billion, with 14 million passengers down 7 per cent due to less capacity to market. 'We expect to end the year with a revenue growth of 2 per cent compared to last year and a substantial breakeven in EBIT,' Eberhart added. The net debt of EUR 1.7 billion, an improvement of EUR 700 million compared to 31 December last year, is weighed down by the cost of aircraft leasing. Despite the difficulties due to grounded aircraft, according to the manager Ita Airways is on a trajectory to break even by this year while waiting for the synergies with Lufthansa to come into full swing in 2027.

The 2026-2030 Business Plan envisages the entry of one long-haul aircraft per year starting from 2026 and the gradual replacement of old-generation aircraft until 2030 when the fleet (currently of 101 aircraft) will be almost all new-generation, with fuel consumption on average 20-25% less. With this fleet at its disposal, in the winter season, Ita Airways will operate 53 destinations, of which 16 domestic, 21 international and 16 intercontinental, including the new Rome Fiumicino Mauritius connection and with 46 code share agreements. 'Of course, our teams cannot work miracles overnight,' commented Ita's CEO. 'We have to solve maintenance problems. We have to get more planes. We have to get antitrust approval from the US. So we are only nine months away from completing the process. We can only express our satisfaction with the work done by our teams, who are doing an extraordinary job. But of course we have not yet reached the maximum potential that this partnership can unleash, we are fully committed to reaching it.