After months of negotiations with the Italian state, Lufthansa has acquired a stake in ITA Airways. For an initial 40 percent of the shares, the German M-Dax group is to pay between 320 and 330 million euros into the company's equity, the media had already reported in advance. In the afternoon, both sides confirmed the agreement in principle in Rome, without initially giving any figures.

According to the reports, a further 500 million euros will flow for a further 50 to 55 percent of the shares as soon as the company generates profits again. The Italian state would thus remain on board for the time being – contrary to Lufthansa's initial plans. The transaction is subject to competition law reviews at national and European level.

Is the name Alitalia coming back?

Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), founded in 2020, took over the flight operations of its insolvent predecessor Alitalia in October 2021, but is not its legal successor. However, ITA has secured take-off and landing rights as well as the Alitalia brand.

The legendary name could possibly soon be reactivated under the new corporate umbrella. Lufthansa's head of strategy, Jörg Eberhart, who has already headed the regional subsidiary Air Dolomiti, which is active in northern Italy, is being discussed as the new head of ITA.

Last year, ITA posted a net loss of 1 million euros on sales of just under 6.486 billion euros. At the end of March, the company cited the aftermath of the Corona pandemic, increased fuel costs as a result of the Ukraine war and the poor euro-dollar exchange rate as the reason for this.

For 2027, 94 aircraft and a turnover of 4.1 billion euros are now targeted. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr spoke of a win-win situation for Italy, ITA and his company. He wants to bring the lean Alitalia successor with its young fleet into the profit zone through higher capacity utilization, cheaper purchasing and better flight coordination.

Lufthansa has been trying to gain a foothold in its second most important foreign market for many years. An experiment launched in 2009 under the name Lufthansa Italia came to an end in 2011. At present, the Group is only attracting transfers from rich northern Italy to the Munich hub with Air Dolomiti flights. Now, with ITA, Lufthansa is acquiring market share in an environment dominated by external low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG has already taken over the former state-owned airlines of the neighbouring countries of Switzerland, Austria and Belgium and continued to operate them as independent brands. The Belgian successor to Sabena, Brussels Airlines, had taken over Lufthansa in two stages and initially also started with a minority. Another possible takeover target is the Portuguese tap.