«There are 400 million in cash, with Lufthansa there is a focus on the price»- Corriere.it

The third (and last) public capital increase for Ita Airways can wait. “There are now 400 million in cash,” says Fabio Lazzerini, CEO of the Italian airline. And for this reason, given the situation, “at the moment” that payment is not needed. “Although it is up to the Ministry of the Economy to decide when it will be necessary,” clarified the manager questioned on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new boarding area at Rome Fiumicino airport. So far the state has paid 1.1 billion euros in Ita, money authorized by the European Commission. The tranche of 250 million would still remain, which could arrive in the second quarter according to what the Courier.

Rising revenues

According to Lazzerini, the first quarter “is paying off last year’s efforts: we are still in the preliminary balance but we will close with 18% more cash than our budget”. As at 31 December 2022 Ita’s cash flow amounted to 418 million euros, with 400 million as at 31 March 2023 it would mean that Ita would have burned “only” 200 thousand euros a day from 1 January against 1.3 million a day year before. Even if asked about the numbers, more than one analyst warned that in the absence of all the data, the real evolution of cash flows could be different from what emerges from a subtraction between two publicly provided values.

The privatization

The managing director says little about the progress of the close negotiations with Lufthansa for the entry – at 40% – of the German carrier into the tricolor one. “Relations with Lufthansa are good, daily,” he comments. As for the evaluation and the price that Lufthansa should pay, “the MEF will take care of it”, cut it short. The CEO recalls that Ita “has a fleet of 74 aircraft which will become 93 at the end of the year and by 2025 it will have 80% of new generation aircraft”. The vector “continues to develop”, he continues and adds that the country must focus on tourism, especially on the “high-spending” one because Italy, in this area, “is a superpower with a capital s, no one can offer what we have ».

Custom gates

In the new boarding area at Fiumicino, it is explained, Ita Airways will have 14 “branded” gates – that is, dedicated to the carrier’s flights only -: 8 on the upper floor, for fingers, 6 on the lower floor, for remote boarding. «An airport and a company that has based its hub there live in symbiosis and as we understand it with our ADR partners it is a win-win relationship, because their customer is our customer and vice versa», reasons Lazzerini. «Our growth as a carrier directly follows their development as a home base. As well as their ability to offer increasingly innovative services and increasingly efficient infrastructures, corresponds the possibility of the company to make itself more attractive, both for incoming and for transiting traffic».