(Tiper Stock Exchange) – “The Italian market is strategic for us and investment in ITA is fundamental“. The CEO of Lufthansa said it, Carsten Spohr, during the annual press conference, speaking of the negotiations with the Treasury on the purchase of a minority stake in ITA and emphasizing that “we aim to make ITA profitable within a few years”.
“They are exclusive negotiations, they are going well, they are constructive but I can’t say more“, said Spohr explaining that “The purchase of ITA will not only bring benefits to ITA but also to Lufthansa and the Italian economy and for this reason this negotiation must continue to be constructive and oriented towards finding a solution”, underlined the ‘to. “We will report back in due course when we are ready with the Italian government and ITA.”
Spohr also pointed out that “Purchase of ITA currently takes precedence but we will not turn a blind eye to other consolidation opportunities”, in response to a question on whether they would also be interested in Air Portugal (Tap).
Lufthansa which almost doubled its revenues to 32.8 billion euros in the 2022 financial year (previous year: 16.8 billion).
“Lufthansa is back – commented the CEO in the past few hours Spohr – In just one year, we have achieved an unprecedented financial breakthrough. With an operating profit of 1.5 billion euros, the group achieved a much better result than expected. Demand for air travel remains high in 2023.”
In total, yes102 million passengers were welcomed on board, more than double compared to 2021 (47 million). The capacity offered by the passenger airlines of the Lufthansa group was of 72% compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019.