The Italian government has announced that it has received a letter of intent from German airline Lufthansa to purchase a minority stake in Italy’s flag carrier airline ITA.
In a written statement from the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), “MEF has received a letter of intent from German Lufthansa to purchase a minority stake in ITA Airlines. The Ministry reserves the right to examine the adequacy of the proposal in accordance with the requirements set in the decree. No other offers have been received until today, which is the deadline for notification.
Lufthansa also confirmed the offer. In the statement, it was also noted that Lufthansa’s plan is to agree on options to purchase the remaining shares at a future date, as well as the minority stake. In Italy, the coalition government led by Giorgia Meloni took a step towards privatization of ITA at the end of December and accepted the decree approving the sale of minority shares. ITA was established in October 2021 after the closure of the 75-year-old Alitalia airline, which had been financially supported.
Founded on January 6, 1953, Lufthansa is the second largest airline in Europe by the number of passengers it carries.
Lufthansa, which flies to 310 destinations around the world, employs 107 thousand people. Headquartered in Cologne, the company operates codeshare flights with 37 airlines, including Turkish Airlines.
The company is also the sponsor of Eintracht Frankfurt, one of the Bundesliga teams.
