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Ita-Lufthansa, take off: acquisition on January 13. Eberhart new CEO. Ten thousand hires, over half in Germany

Ita-Lufthansa, the acquisition closes on Monday, January 13. After a troubled process, the deal is signed, with the German airline entering the capital of the new company born from the ashes of Alitalia

Ita-Lufthansa, take off: acquisition on January 13. Eberhart new CEO. Ten thousand hires, over half in Germany

Monday 13 January the acquisition is closed. A few hours, therefore, until the wedding and then it's done: after a troubled process, the deal is signed Italy-Lufthansa with the German airline entering the capital of the new company born from the ashes of Alitalia.

Ita-Lufthansa, it's done: the acquisition on Monday 13th January

The date leaked out in recent days from a meeting with CEO Carsten Spohr's employees, which was first reported by the German agency Dpa while nothing has leaked from the Treasury except that this phase will be closed "by January". From Frankfurt, Lufthansa has only confirmed that "the operation will take place at the beginning of 2025". The closing follows the green light from the European Commission at the beginning of December and the resolution of the extraordinary assembly of the Italian company on the capital increase.

The operation will see Lufthansa to initially acquire 41% of Ita Airways by subscribing to the recapitalization by 325 million euro, to completely take over the company in two successive phases by 2033 investing 830 million overall.

Ita-Lufthansa: Towards a New Board of Directors, Eberhart Ad

A subsequent ordinary meeting of Ita shareholders will proceed to appoint the new board of directors, which in line with the agreements announced last summer will be expanded from three to five directors. Three will be representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, including the president, and two will be appointed by Lufthansa, including the new CEO, who according to all rumors will be Joerg Eberhart, currently head of strategy at Lufthansa and formerly chairman and CEO of Air Dolomiti.

To give the green light to the operation, Brussels imposed several conditions to guarantee competition, both on European flights and on intercontinental connections. The slots of Milan Linate e Roma Fiumicino sold have already been taken over by Easyjet. And Lufthansa had to make deals with competitors Air France-Klm e IAG (British Airways, Iberia), relating to its passengers flying from Italy to the hubs in Paris and London.

Ita-Lufthansa, 10 thousand new hires

Lufthansa has meanwhile announced that aim to hire around 10 people by 2025, half of which will be in Germany: 2.000 flight attendants, 1.400 ground staff and around 1.300 technical experts across the group. 1.200 administrative staff and around 800 pilots will also be recruited.

More than half of the hires will take place in GermanyThe Frankfurt giant also announced that over 2.000 employees will start working at Lufthansa Technik. While Austrian Airlines and Eurowings will recruit around 700 employees each.

In the meantime, the agreement for the extension until October 31, 2025 of the extraordinary redundancy fund for the 2.118 Alitalia workers in As. “The extension, adopted by also deploying the resources of the solidarity fund, allows us to avoid dismissals,” Uiltrasporti reported at the end of the meeting at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies.

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