In a press statement, Lufthansa says that at a press conference in Rome, Carsten Spohr, CEO, Deutsche Lufthansa, Sandro Pappalardo, Chairman, ITA Airways, and Joerg Eberhart, CEO, ITA Airways, presented the first concrete steps and improvements for customer post the integration of ITA Airways into the Lufthansa Group.

The statement adds that with immediate effect, 36 million Miles & More members can earn and redeem miles on all ITA Airways flights. At the same time, the 2.7 million members of the ITA Airways frequent flyer programme Volare can earn and redeem their points on all flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

Other benefits for ITA Airways passengers include the 130 lounges of the Lufthansa Group and its partners on their travels. The lounges of ITA Airways will also be open to Lufthansa Group passengers from this date.

Additionally, with the start of the summer flight schedule, on March 30, more than 100 flight connections will initially share their flight numbers and thus will be more easily combined. These code-shares will make it possible to combine flights of different airlines in the group into a single booking. Once fully implemented, this code-sharing will give ITA Airways passengers access to over 250 destinations of the Lufthansa Group.

For passengers of the Lufthansa Group airlines, the offer will be expanded to include ITA Airways domestic flights to Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria and Puglia. All codeshare connections can be booked from February 25 through all global sales channels, including online and via the Lufthansa Group and ITA Airways apps.

Carsten Spohr

“Now that ITA Airways has become a member of our airline family a few days ago, we want to push ahead with the merger quickly, so that ITA and its passengers, as well as the guests of our other passenger airlines, can quickly benefit from the advantages of an expanded Lufthansa Group. We are also confident that ITA Airways will realise a profit as early as this year. All in all, we are convinced that today, the start of the integration of ITA Airways into the Lufthansa Group, marks the beginning of a joint success story for customers, employees and shareholders of ITA Airways and the Lufthansa Group,” says Carsten Spohr, CEO, Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

The statement adds that, starting March 30, ITA Airways will move into the Lufthansa Airlines terminal in Frankfurt, at Terminal 1 and in Munich at Terminal 2. This will significantly reduce passengers’ transfer times. At all other hubs of the group, as well as in Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate, the Lufthansa Group airlines already offer their flights in the same terminal areas as ITA Airways.

In the future, ITA Airways passengers will also be able to take advantage of all the product benefits of the Lufthansa Group, adds the statement.