Germany’s Lufthansa Group is said to be in advanced talks to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Italy’s new flag carrier ITA Airways. According to Italian daily Il Foglio which broke the news, the deal could be announced as early as next week. Lufthansa declined to comment on the reports on Saturday.
The newspaper did not say how much Lufthansa was planning to spend on the acquisition but sources claimed the airline group wanted to turn Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport into a long-haul base for flights to the Americas and Africa.
ITA Airways is owned by the Italian government and was created to replace the now-defunct national carrier Alitalia. During the years-long process to wind up Alitalia, talks were held with Lufthansa about a possible sale but ultimately this didn’t come to pass.
The management team at ITA Airways have, however, been very open about their desire to sell the new carrier, or at least a stake in it, to an international airline group. Senior executives have been courting Lufthansa and there were rumours that they were also trying to woo Delta Air Lines.
The Lufthansa Group has a significant presence across Europe and the Italian regional carrier Air Dolomiti is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
ITA Airways are set to hold a boarding meeting on January 31 when they will discuss the next steps for the fledgling carrier. Amongst the motions that are up for approval is a plan to resurrect the Alitalia brand which was bought by ITA for €90 million. The board could also approve the deal with Lufthansa.
Brilliant idea, LH! I guess they didn’t see how well this type of arrangement worked out for Etihad when they bought a similar stake in AZ.