New Lease of Life for Lufthansa Italia

Lufthansa Italia has recently gained a new lease of life by receiving its Italian Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) on January 11. The carrier has been operating since 2009 under a German AOC and as a result this has restricted some of the destinations the carrier has been able to fly, now having Italian status the carrier will be able to operate outside the EU to markets like Turkey and Egypt and to countries that do not have open skies agreements with the EU.

The carrier’s cost base will also benefit from an Italian AOC as Lufthansa Italia will be able to employ Italian crews of its own rather than German crews having to overnight in Italy, with the associated hotel and accommodation costs. Lufthansa Italia has had to fight against the low-cost presence in Italy, for instance nearly 20 per cent of Ryanair’s capacity is now allocated to the Italian market.

Source: Flightbase (February 14-20, 2011)

Lufthansa Italia initially launched commercial services from Milan Malpensa on February 2, 2009 offering three times daily flights to Barcelona and Paris. It now has a fleet of eight A319s and serves 17 destinations which are a mix of business and leisure routes including: Stockholm, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, London Heathrow, Paris (CDG), Madrid, Lisbon, Naples, Cagliari, Olbia, Barcelona, Palma, Bari, Catania, Palermo and Ibiza. Together with its German sister carrier it offers more than 800 weekly flights from Italy, with 73 per cent of these being to its largest German hubs at Frankfurt and Munich.

All Lufthansa Italia’s A319s are fitted with a standard Lufthansa interior with minor touches to distinguish them from Lufthansa’s mainline fleet. These include modified leather headrests with the Italian flag on them and the addition of an Italian section in the traditional in-flight magazine.