Ita sold to Lufthansa, deal concluded for 41%, complete acquisition by 2033

The meeting of shareholders of Ita Airways approved and therefore made official the purchase of 41% of the company’s shares by the German airline Lufthansa. With this step, the heir to Alitalia begins the path that will lead it to pass entirely into German hands by 2033.

Ita was created by the Italian state using the planes and licenses of Alitalia, which went bankrupt in 2021 after decades of crisis. From the first moment the objective was to sell the company and, after long negotiations, Giorgia Meloni’s Government reached an agreement with Lufthansa in 2023.

Lufthansa has purchased Ita Airways

The closing of the purchase of Ita by Lufthansa was postponed on Monday 13th, but was duly concluded on Wednesday 15th January. This first phase of the agreement is valid 350 million of euros and envisages a change in the company’s management and board of directors, to reflect the new ownership balance. Now 59% of the national airline is in the hands of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, while the rest passes to the German company.

Although still in the minority, Lufthansa will hold the most important position, that of CEO. The role will be filled by Joerg Eberhartn, now former Head of Strategy of the German airline, who knows Italy very well, having worked for 7 years as CEO of AirDolomiti, a Lufthansa subsidiary based in Verona.

The reason why Lufthansa will appoint the CEO is the very agreement with which the company agreed to purchase Ita Airways from the Italian state. In fact, over the next 3 years, the German company will progressively purchase shares of the Italian one until it owns 90%. Finally, the ten-year acquisition will end from 2028 to 2033with the Germans passing 100%completely excluding the Italian state from control of the airline. In total it is an 835 million euro operation.

How the sale of Ita came about

Since its founding in 2020 and the official bankruptcy of Alitalia in 2021, the Italian Government’s original intention for Ita was to be sold to a foreign company or consortium of entrepreneurs. The State actually drastically reduced the size of the national airline, to demonstrate that an Italian passenger air transport company was economically sustainable.

After a few years of operation and a gradual increase in staff, Ita attracted the interest of several airlines and, in 2023, Lufthansa reached the agreement with the Italian state. In 2024, however, the European Commission, after having approved the acquisition from a continental point of view, asked for some measures on certain routes and airports to prevent Lufthansa from gaining a dominant position at a local level from the operation.

The most problematic issue was the sale of slots, departure and landing rights, at Malpensa airport, for which Lufthansa and Ita had to find buyers. The agreement with the Italian state he also risked jumping but Lufthansa finally managed to find a way to sell the slots without compromising its position in Italy.