It is finished. After what felt like an endlessly long sales process with lots of back and forth, the announcement finally came yesterday evening that the deal between the Italian state and “Carsten Spohrs – Lufthansa” was sealed.

After the LH Group had already brought the state airlines in Belgium, Switzerland and Austria under the umbrella of DLH with Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways in Italy is now the fifth network carrier to follow. On the one hand, the acquisition of the Italians is hoped for increased access to the Latin American and African markets, on the other hand, the focus in Frankfurt and Rome is on considerable synergy effects, as well as a further strengthening of the Italian market and its own hubs, to which Rome is now also added -Fiumicino is added.

ITA will remain as an independent brand with its own identity. While Lufthansa is investing a total of 325 million euros as fresh capital directly in the company as part of a capital increase, the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance also committed to bringing a further 250 million euros into ITA via a capital increase. Of course, the entire deal is currently still subject to approval by the relevant authorities.

What does ITA Airways bring to the Lufthansa Group?

The successor to the previous Alitalia, whose livery still bears some of the fleet's current 66 aircraft, currently employs around 4000 people. Around 64 million passengers were transported to 10 destinations. These are divided into 21 domestic routes, 33 European routes and 10 intercontinental routes. The pure Airbus fleet currently consists of 66 aircraft of the types A220-300, A319, A320, A320neo, A330-200 and the A350-900. Another model will soon join the company with the acquisition of the first A330-900neo.

After the airline had repeatedly emphasized the importance of the third-largest economy in the EU in terms of gross domestic product for the Lufthansa Group in the past with the short guest appearance “Lufthansa Italia” in Milan Malpensa and the successful subsidiary Air Dolomiti, the new Italian subsidiary, which is now the fifth network airline to enrich the Lufthansa Group.

In addition to its own hub in Rome-Fiumicino, ITA is of course increasingly focusing on the Milan market. It is still the largest airline in Milan - Linate and also serves another intercontinental route from Italy's second largest city with the route Milan-Malpensa - New York-JFK. Naturally, Lufthansa sees further potential for growth in the market from Milan onwards.