European regulators have accredited Lufthansa Group’s bid to amass a 41% stake in embattled Italian flag provider ITA Airways, the corporate stated Wednesday. The deal, anticipated to shut later this 12 months, will set the stage for ITA to grow to be that newest to take part within the wave of consolidation within the European trade.
As a part of the transfer, ITA is anticipated to affix the Miles & Extra loyalty program, Lufthansa leaders stated. And the corporate is “aiming” for the airline to grow to be a part of the Star Alliance.
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EU offers inexperienced mild
The approval from the European Fee in Brussels got here greater than a 12 months after the 2 corporations first introduced the deal, which is able to see Lufthansa purchase a 41% stake in ITA.
The deal offers Lufthansa Group the choice to amass the remaining 59% of ITA shares sooner or later. If the Lufthansa Group decides to maneuver forward on that entrance, it may come as quickly as 2025, underneath the association accredited this week by European Union officers.
The merger is anticipated to be accomplished by the fourth quarter of this 12 months, Lufthansa Group stated in an announcement saying the information. At that time, the corporate is planning for ITA’s “swift integration” into the group, which already contains a host of European airways.
“We sit up for welcoming ITA Airways and its excellent staff as a brand new member of our airline household very quickly,” Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spoor stated in an announcement Wednesday.
ITA Airways was fashioned from the remnants of Alitalia in 2020, and the Italian authorities took over the beleaguered airline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus far, ITA has not been capable of shake Alitalia’s longstanding status for shedding cash.
Similar model, new alliance and loyalty program anticipated
In becoming a member of Lufthansa Group, ITA Airways will stay the airline’s model. That is per different mergers seen within the European airline trade.
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ITA would be the group’s sixth airline, becoming a member of Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airways and Brussels Airways.
Instantly after the deal closes, Lufthansa Group stated, ITA will start codesharing with its newfound sister manufacturers.
ITA may also be a part of the Miles & Extra loyalty program utilized by different airways within the group and be a part of the mixed reserving and gross sales channels, to not point out “quite a few synergies” the corporate can make use of with plane and gas buying selections.
A key step that is nonetheless to return: a shift in alliances. Whereas the Lufthansa Group’s full-service airways are a part of the Star Alliance, ITA is a part of SkyTeam right this moment.
In saying the information, Lufthansa Group stated it is aiming for ITA to affix the Star Alliance within the “close to future.”
That probably may give Star Alliance loyalists extra mileage incomes and accomplice redemption alternatives on flights to Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), which is able to grow to be Lufthansa Group’s southernmost hub, the corporate famous.
ITA’s footprint
ITA flies nonstop to simply over a half-dozen U.S. cities from Rome. Its July 2024 U.S. route map, as proven within the under map from Cirium, contains Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) and San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO) on the West Coast, Chicago’s O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD) within the Midwest, and a number of East Coast airports: Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS), New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), Washington’s Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD) and Miami Worldwide Airport (MIA).
European airline consolidation
This ITA acquisition additionally marks the most recent step within the wave of airline consolidation in Europe.
The continent right this moment is house to a few main dad or mum corporations.
Together with Lufthansa Group, Worldwide Airways Group owns main carriers like British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and low-cost Vueling, amongst others. (It is price noting that Finnair and Qatar Airways share Avios as a loyalty forex with a number of IAG manufacturers, too.)
Air France-KLM Group, which owns its two namesake manufacturers based mostly respectively in Paris and Amsterdam, has reached a deal for a stake in Scandinavian Airways. That also wants regulatory approval.
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