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Lufthansa will consider raising its stake in Italy's ITA Airways to 90%, starting from early next year, the CEO of the German airline said in an interview published on Thursday. Carsten Spohr was speaking after his company won EU antitrust approval to buy 41% of state-owned ITA for E325m. "For us, the option for the 90% starts in early 2025," Spohr told Italy's Corriere della Sera, adding that he would like the Italian government to retain a stake in ITA. When Lufthansa agreed its 41% deal with Rome's authorities last year, it said it was looking to acquire full control of ITA "at a later date". In a separate interview with Il Sole 24 Ore daily, ITA Chairman Antonino Turicchi said the closing of the deal for Lufthansa's initial investment would take place in November, adding that Lufthansa would have the possibility of raising its stake to 90% "one year after the closing". Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Wednesday that his government wanted to maintain some oversight on ITA to protect national interests. In Thursday's Corriere della Sera, Spohr said he would like to retain "the support" of the Italian government for the first two years of Lufthansa's involvement in ITA. "Then we will discuss together what to do," he added. Spohr declined to say who will be appointed as ITA's new CEO after Italian press reports suggested that Joerg Eberhart, Lufthansa's head of strategy and former boss of Air Dolomiti, would get the job.<br/>

Italian carrier ITA Airways is performing ahead of the business plan drawn up last year as Lufthansa Group prepares to take a stake in the airline. In March last year, ITA’s board of directors approved a ”business plan already shared with Deutsche Lufthansa” as it worked towards finalising a deal under which the German airline group would take a 41% stake in the Italian carrier. Speaking at a press conference in Rome on 3 July, after the European Commission gave its conditional backing for the deal, Spohr said ITA was tracking ahead of plan. ”I am very happy to say the current performance of ITA is better than the joint business plan we had agreed on more than a year ago,” he says. “So my expectation is we will continue to perform better than the business plan. We can use the money to invest in more airplanes and to grow faster.” Spohr has previously said ITA could be profitable by 2025, though that was based on Lufthansa securing clearance for its acquisition by the end of last year. Lufthansa now expects to close the deal, which is contingent on the Commission approving the implementation of proposed remedy solutions, in the fourth quarter of this year. Spohr was also upbeat about the potential for ITA to be sustainably profitable despite the long loss-making history of predecessor Italian flag carrier Alitalia. ”I think ITA has less of a problem of its costs, because it is a very lean, well-managed company,” says Spohr, noting the bigger issue for the carrier is around its revenues. ”It is too small to compete in the world alone against the American carriers in the Americas or the Asian carriers in Asia. And even in Italy, ITA is only number four because the three low-cost carriers are so strong.<br/>

It took a year of wrangling with the European Commission for Germany's Lufthansa to gain approval to buy 41% of Italy's ITA Airways, and only after it accepted big concessions. While the deal expands Lufthansa's footprint in the lucrative southern European market, the combined group will have to cede some routes and slots to rivals for it to proceed. Industry executives, investors and experts say greater scrutiny of such tie-ups by European regulators and demands for remedies could deter major airlines from further deals. British Airways-owner IAG has been in the crosshairs since 2019 when it announced plans to buy Spanish carrier Air Europa, with an EU deadline of Aug. 20 for concessions, while regulators are also expected to probe Air France-KLM's plan to buy 19.9% of Scandinavian carrier SAS. Airline executives have long said consolidation is needed to help offset soaring operating costs, helping carriers recover from the COVID-19 pandemic which brought global travel to a halt and the travel sector to the brink. But regulators worry Europe's three largest groups, IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, are becoming too dominant, potentially hurting consumer choice and making flying less affordable. "We can see that Europe is becoming more and more cautious about this wave of consolidation," said Piotr Grobelny at aviation data analysis firm IBA. The next candidate for privatisation is Portugal's TAP. But Lisbon's plans have been thrown off course by political turmoil, despite interest from Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and IAG.<br/>

A second Air New Zealand flight has been forced to turn around this week as a precaution over engine issues. NZ81 from Auckland to Hong Kong was two-and-a-half hours into its flight on Thursday when the pilots had to return back to NZ due to the “anti-ice function” in one of the engines. A spokesperson said the engine of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner needed “to be checked by our maintenance team and doing so in Auckland rather than Hong Kong will ensure the aircraft can return to service much faster”. “This did not present a safety risk to passengers on board.” Customers would be put on the next available service and the airline “thanked them for their patience and understanding”. It follows another Air NZ flight turnaround earlier this week. NZ289 took off from Auckland for Shanghai on Monday night, but just after the plane reached the Solomon Islands, it turned back towards New Zealand, landing back in Tāmaki Makaurau just after 8.30am on Tuesday, meaning passengers endured a nine-hour flight to nowhere.<br/>