Italy’s finance ministry has sent details to the European Commission of the remedies package supporting Lufthansa’s planned acquisition of a 41% stake in national carrier ITA Airways.
Approval of the remedies would mark the last step in securing clearance for the acquisition, a deal for which was agreed in May 2023, and comes amid recent reports of last-minute haggling between Lufthansa and Italy over the price for ITA.
”The expected economic conditions have not undergone changes compared to the agreement already signed,” says the Italian Ministry of Finance, noting that full details of the agreements including the corrective competition measures have been sent to the Commission.
”The final approval of the European Commission is awaited with confidence to proceed with the closing of the operation.”
Commission regulators in early July finally gave their conditional approval to the deal after Lufthansa and ITA committed to a number of remedy actions to satisfy competition concerns.
These relate to the impact of the merger on some short- and long-haul routes – most notably from Milan Linate – on certain Italian routes to central Europe, and on transatlantic flights.
