ITA Airways: from SkyTeam to Star Alliance

February 4, 2025

With the Lufthansa Group starting to integrate ITA Airways into its network – with a €325 million deal closed last month providing Lufthansa with an initial 41% stake in the Italian airline – a number of changes are being initiated over the coming weeks.
With immediate effect, ‘Miles & More’ members can now earn and redeem miles on all ITA Airways flights, with a reciprocal arrangement allowing ITA Airways ‘Volare’ programme members to earn and redeem points on all flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.
From 30 March, ITA Airways will also move into Frankfurt’s Terminal 1 and Munich’s Terminal 2, joining Lufthansa and mirroring the shared terminal system already in operation at all of the Lufthansa Group’s other hubs. With this shared operation “an essential prerequisite for quick and comfortable transfers,” the two carriers will also join forces to offer reciprocal lounge access.
Additionally, with ITA Airways services joining Lufthansa Group Airlines’ routes, more than 100 flights for the summer 2025 season “will initially share their flight numbers and can thus be more easily combined”. When fully integrated, Lufthansa adds that this number will grow to over 250 destinations, while flight connections between the major hubs of Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels will also be optimised.
Noting his confidence that ITA Airways “will realise a profit as early as this year,” Deutsche Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr added he “wants to push ahead with the merger quickly” for the benefit of all passengers. Preparations have also begun for ITA Airways’ withdrawal from its current SkyTeam alliance, with the exit phase to conclude by 30 April; paving the way for it to instead join Star Alliance in the first half of 2026. Lufthansa concludes that ascension to this new group is of “crucial importance” for passengers to “be able to take advantage of all the product benefits of the Lufthansa Group”.