Airlines
Lufthansa Eyes TAP Acquisition As Talks Continue Over ITA Deal
The German group achieved a financial turnaround in 2022 recording a €1.5 billion operating profit, even though most of its airlines remained loss-making.
Lufthansa A320 aircraft.
With its balance sheet bolstered, Lufthansa is considering possible acquisition's of Portuguese airline TAP and Italy's ITA Airways. (Image: Lufthansa)

Lufthansa has joined Air France KLM and International Airlines Group (IAG) in rebounding to profitability in 2022 after two years of heavy losses resulting from the Covid pandemic. Like its European rivals, the German flagcarrier is also eyeing a possible takeover of TAP Air Portugal, with the Portuguese government intending to re-privatize at least half of TAP's share capital and having appointed U.S. investment banking advisory firm Evercore as an advisor for the transaction.

At the same time, Lufthansa is engaged in exclusive negotiations with Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance to acquire an equity interest in the country’s national airline, ITA Airways (formerly Alitatlia). However, that is not stopping the company to look at other merger and acquisition possibilities.