ITA Airways transports freight and mail in the fuselages of its passenger aircraft.ITA Airways’ cargo center is located at Rome-Fiumicino Airport.The geographical coverage is very extensive, also thanks to the integration into an efficient road transport system (RFS – Road Feeder Service).
Jörg Eberhart, Lufthansa’s chief strategist and former head of the northern Italian regional subsidiary Air Dolomiti, was appointed CEO of Ita Airways.The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) plans for Lufthansa to take over a 90 percent majority in the second step.The complete takeover could then take place by 2033, provided the business figures are correct.The total purchase price will then be 829 million euros plus a potential variable component.
After Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian and the Belgian Brussels Airlines, Ita is the fifth privatised state airline under the umbrella of the group. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr announced that regular customers would be offered a quick transition to the Lufthansa Miles&More program. The transition to the Star Alliance airline alliance is planned for 2026.
The marriage with Lufthansa is the provisional end of a long zigzag course of the former state airline Alitalia.The company got into financial difficulties in the early 1990s due to extraneous influence from political circles.After a changeable phase under the management of private investors, on October 15, 2021 the Italian state again took over the airline, this time under the name ITA.The airline has around 100 aircraft and 4,900 employees.
The current takeover by the Lufthansa Group required the acceptance of several conditions from the competition watchdogs of the European Commission. Self-limitations were necessary in the Italian and US business.The Lufthansa Group was already active there with its Star Alliance partners United Airlines and Air Canada.ITA canceled three routes to North America.The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is currently the largest provider in the Italian market.Regardless of this, Lufthansa leaves flight connections in Italy to competitors Easyjet, Air France-KLM and International Airline Group IAG (British Airways, Iberia).
The modern Rome-Fiumicino airport will become the Lufthansa Group’s sixth and southernmost hub.The low-cost airline Easyjet, which is already active in Italy, is also opening two new bases with eight aircraft in Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate.From these, it will offer 27 new routes, including to Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf in Germany.Easyjet will also receive extensive take-off and landing rights in Rome and Milan from ITA.In addition, ITA must bring passengers from competitors IAG and Air France to their hubs at preferential rates.With the change from the Skyteam airline alliance to the Star Alliance dominated by Lufthansa, partner companies for any onward flights will change, as will the infrastructure provided, e.g. lounges at the airport.
The takeover will create new market opportunities for Lufthansa for connections to North and South America, Africa and Asia. For some Italians, the merger with the German company is a serious insult, reported “Spiegel Wirtschaft”: “The satirical supplement of the daily newspaper “La Stampa” recently mockingly depicted a new Ita machine as an oversized sausage, with the black, red and gold lettering: ‘The New Alitalien – Enough with the spaghetti eaters’.”
Hermann Schmidtendorf, editor-in-chief
