Deutsche Lufthansa AG completed the acquisition of a minority stake in Italian carrier ITA Airways late on Friday after first making an offer for its competitor in January 2023.

With the final report of the three extraordinary commissioners, Gabriele Fava, Giuseppe Leogrande and Daniele Umberto Santosuosso, the era of Alitalia, the historic national airline, has definitively ended. Having taken off on 11 January 2015 as “Società Aerea Italiana”, it went bankrupt in 2017 and has dissolved in 2024, marking the end of an era.

German Lufthansa Group has finalized its acquisition of Italian airline ITA Airways, closing a long period of uncertainty for Italy’s former flagship carrier.

Lufthansa finalised its acquisition of a 41% stake in Italian state-owned airline ITA after European antitrust remedies were put in place, it said on Friday, in a deal designed to boost the carrier's presence in the lucrative southern European market.

MORE TIME TO TRAVEL We recently flew ITA Airways Business Class round-trip from JFK in New York to Palermo, Italy (with a stop in Rome). This is what the experience was like. MORE TIME TO TRAVEL - Exp