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ITA expects greater full-year profits as it prepares to join Lufthansa group

Italy's ITA Airways stated on Friday it expects traveler income to increase by a quarter in 2024 from last year as it flies with fuller aircrafts, after core earnings turned favorable in the first half.

The Italian state-controlled carrier, which is soon to enter the Lufthansa group, expects full-year sales to strike 2.7 billion euros ($ 3.02 billion), with its load aspect set to increase above 80% from 79% currently, CFO Claudio Faggiani stated.

Earnings before interest, taxes, devaluation and amortisation (EBITDA) turned positive, at 62 million euros, and money reserves edged as much as 393 million euros.

Income rose to 1.4 billion euros in the very first half of the year on a 26% jump in passenger numbers to 8.3 million.

The money allows the business to support the financial investment strategy, which has more than doubled compared to the previous year, Turicchi told reporters in Milan.

Germany's Lufthansa got the thumbs-up in July to take a 41% stake in ITA for 325 million euros, after a long negotiation with Brussels which involved ceding paths and slots to rivals to address competition issues.

Turicchi said the company was positive of closing the deal by the Nov. 4 deadline.

The conditions connected to the EU's approval raised worries that ITA - which took off in 2021 changing insolvent Alitalia - might lose interest in buying Milan's Linate airport to the advantage of Rome's Fiumicino airport.

Talking at a news conference at the company's new head office in Milan, ITA director general Andrea Benassi rejected this, saying Linate stays strategic and the airline continued to buy the center.

He added that ITA will need to release an overall of 30 slots at Linate, which account for only 1% of the company's overall turnover and which won't have a significant effect on the organization.

(source: Reuters)