CEO Interview: ITA Airways' Disciplined Strategy

‍NEW YORK — Meet the jovial Joerg Eberhart, CEO of ITA Airways (AZ), Italy’s new flag carrier and the Official Airline Sponsor of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. 

On October 17, 2025, Airways joined Eberhart, accompanied by AZ's Chief Communication Officer Pietro Caldaroni, for a private media roundtable in Midtown Manhattan, where he outlined ITA’s transformation strategy and addressed the challenges and ambitions of building a new global carrier in today’s aviation landscape.

Eberhart described a business built on disciplined growth and strategic alignment. ITA is on track to become part of the Lufthansa Group in 2026 and join Star Alliance, deepening network integration across Europe and North America. This year, the airline strengthened its U.S. footprint through new codeshare agreements with United Airlines and Air Canada, setting the stage for full joint venture participation on transatlantic routes.

For ITA, the mission is clear: connect the world to Italy with a network built for long-term resilience, not rapid expansion.

This post is based on that media roundtable conversation and extended Q&A with Joerg Eberhart, supplemented by verified corporate and regulatory materials from ITA Airways and the Lufthansa Group. Quotations have been lightly edited for clarity.

Key Takeaways

• Lufthansa (LH) now owns 41% of ITA Airways, with a path to full control by 2026.
• Integration strategy prioritizes discipline and hub efficiency before expansion.
• Entry into the A++ joint venture with United and Air Canada could redefine ITA’s U.S. position.
• Airbus supply limits and Pratt & Whitney engine issues constrain fleet growth.
• Brand and culture are anchored in Italianità and premium leisure appeal.

Why ITA Matters Now

ITA Airways has become Europe’s test case for whether a state-backed carrier can turn into a profitable, globally integrated network airline. Born from Alitalia’s collapse in 2021, the blue-fuselaged carrier now stands as a symbol of Italy’s industrial restructuring and Lufthansa’s southern expansion.
“Standalone, ITA would not have survived,” Eberhart said, meaning scale and partnership were essential.

Lufthansa Group’s €325 million investment for a 4% stake in ITA creates a link between Rome Fiumicino (FCO) and Lufthansa’s five northern hubs—Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, and Brussels—completing a pan-European grid from Scandinavia to South America. For Germany, it’s a strategic southern gateway; for Italy, a chance to end decades of financial failure under the Alitalia name.

“Scale without discipline is just expense,” Eberhart told ITA executives. “The difference now is control.”

From Alitalia to ITA: A Controlled Collapse

Alitalia’s decline was long and painful: political interference, nine CEOs in 15 years, and repeated rescues. The CEO mentioned five decades of losses. By 2020, COVID-19 had finished what years of mismanagement had begun. The Italian government responded by founding Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A. (ITA) with €1.35 billion in capital and a mandate to operate commercially rather than politically.

A core team of thirty pioneers, mostly former Alitalia staff, rebuilt the airline from nothing. In three years, ITA grew to about 100 aircraft and 5,000 employees, two-thirds from its predecessor. About two-thirds of the workforce still comes from Alitalia, including 1,000 pilots and 2,300 cabin crew.

The result is one of Europe’s youngest fleets, averaging six years of age. But Eberhart admits that small size equals fragile economics. “With 100 aircraft, you’re sub-scale in Europe. Every system and lease costs more. Integration is not optional.”

The State Strategy Behind ITA

Rome refused to let its flag carrier disappear because aviation is woven into Italy’s economy. Air transport supports over €40 billion in GDP and connects 22 airports nationwide. But the government set new rules: depoliticize operations, cut legacy bureaucracy, and invite an industrial partner.
“The ministry told us clearly: you manage the company; we don’t,” Eberhart recalled.

A short explainer: Extraordinary Administration: Alitalia remains under Italy’s Extraordinary Administration, akin to Chapter 11 with state-appointed commissioners. This allowed ITA to purchase assets without inheriting debt—an unusual reset in European aviation.

Inside the Lufthansa Deal

Lufthansa had tracked Alitalia for years. Earlier joint bids with FS Group and MSC Cruises failed. Still, talks resumed in 2023 and culminated in a 2024 agreement: Lufthansa would inject €325 million for 41% ownership and options to reach 90% by 2026, though the CEO mentioned the “100%” mark nevertheless.

The structure focused on capital strength, not debt relief. For Eberhart, this was essential: “What made Alitalia unsustainable was not demand—it was governance. Control had to shift from politics to management.” No more wasteful à la carte flight routes for entitled Ministers.

Another explainer regarding EU Merger Control: Brussels scrutinized the overlap on Italy-Central Europe routes. Slot concessions at Linate and Fiumicino appeased competition concerns. Approval arrived after 15 months, making ITA the sixth brand under the Lufthansa Group umbrella.

Regulation, Restraint

“The hardest negotiations weren’t with politicians but with lawyers,” Eberhart joked. The Commission’s green light marked not just a deal but a shift in European industrial thinking: a German-Italian carrier combination built on complementary geographies rather than national rescue.

“Rome fits our network,” Eberhart said. “It extends us to Africa and South America.” The acquisition creates a north-south corridor spanning Frankfurt to Buenos Aires—a scale Alitalia could never finance alone.

Integration Will Define ITA More Than Expansion

Eberhart’s mantra is printed on internal documents: integration first, expansion second. More than 600 projects are under way, aligning revenue management, IT systems, procurement, and training with Lufthansa standards. ITA’s Volare loyalty program will merge into Miles & More, instantly expanding its customer ecosystem.

Cargo was first to align: Lufthansa Cargo now markets ITA’s belly capacity out of Rome, creating group-wide network synergies. “The goal is the fastest integration the group has ever done,” Eberhart said. “Two years max.” LH runs the cargo operation, and ITA gets the freight revenue.

“Integration is our growth engine,” he added. “Expansion comes only after we can scale profitably.”

Fleet Reality: Constraints

ITA’s 100-aircraft fleet includes A330-900neo and A350-900 aircraft for long haul and A220 and A321neo jets for short haul. The plan adds one wide-body per year through 2030—measured growth in an industry where speed once killed its predecessor.

“Fleet choices are now about availability, not preference,” Eberhart said. With Airbus slots sold out and leasing costs surging, ITA may need to source used A350 or consider 787-9 aircraft for range to West Coast U.S. and South America. Yet adding a third type would raise complexity. “A fleet is a discipline decision. Every new type multiplies cost.”

Engine Crisis: Supplier Power

The Pratt & Whitney GTF engine crisis has grounded about 20 ITA aircraft—one-fifth of its fleet. Each grounding erodes hub connectivity and pilot productivity. “We have A220 pilots flying 20 hours a month,” Eberhart said. “You can’t grow like that.”

ITA is seeking compensation and may litigate in U.S. courts if negotiations fail. The episode exposes aviation’s dependence on suppliers: “Airlines control only a third of their cost base,” Eberhart observed. “Everyone else—airports, lessors, manufacturers—sets prices we must absorb.”

“This business is not about romance or wings,” he added quietly. “It’s about supply chains and discipline.”

North Atlantic Will Test ITA’s Ambition

The United States is ITA’s largest long-haul market, served from Rome to JFK, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and Chicago, plus Toronto. Eighty percent of sales still originate in Italy, a structural imbalance that limits revenue quality. “We must earn in the U.S., not just sell to the U.S.,” Eberhart said.

Rome Fiumicino anchors a distinct niche: premium leisure and heritage traffic linking Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Italy’s historic ties to Argentina and Brazil reinforce South Atlantic routes that complement Lufthansa’s northern network.

The A++ Joint Venture Advantage

Joining the transatlantic A++ joint venture with LH, United Airlines (UA), and Air Canada (AC) is crucial. The partnership offers antitrust immunity to coordinate pricing, capacity, and revenue sharing across the North Atlantic, the world’s most profitable aviation corridor.

“Once we enter the JV, everything changes,” Eberhart said. “Load factors stabilize, revenues improve, and costs fall through coordination. It’s not about routes—it’s about system value.”

The application filed with U.S. authorities in late 2025 could enable full integration by mid-2027, making Rome the group’s sixth transatlantic hub and ITA a true player in global network aviation

In early October 2025, the aforementioned members of the A++ transatlantic joint venture formally requested approval from U.S. regulators to include ITA Airways in the alliance. The carriers warned that without access to the joint venture’s commercial coordination and revenue-sharing structure, ITA would face competitive disadvantages similar to those that contributed to the collapse of its predecessor, Alitalia.

Cost Structures and Competitive Reality

Europe punishes high-cost airlines. ITA competes in a market dominated by ultra-low-cost carriers like Ryanair (FR) and Wizz Air (W6), particularly in Italy, where price sensitivity remains high. But ITA is not building a price-war airline. Short-haul flying exists to feed long-haul profitability; that is the economic model.

Italy’s domestic and intra-European routes secure passenger flow into Rome and Milan. “If we lose feed, we lose long-haul,” one ITA network planner noted. “Our competitive arena isn’t Naples–Milan; it’s Rome–New York and Rome–Buenos Aires.”

Ryanair may dominate capacity, but it does not compete in premium long-haul traffic. ITA’s margin will come from long-haul revenue quality, loyalty, and network coordination with Lufthansa—not short-haul discounts.

Culture Will Decide the Outcome

Strategy may come from headquarters, but transformation lives or dies in culture. ITA has inherited the discipline of LH but much of the workforce of Alitalia. Behavior change matters.

“You can have the best strategy in the world,” Eberhart said, “but without the right behaviors, it goes nowhere.” The company defined three cultural anchors: Care, Courage, and Italianità. These aren’t for branding; they are used in performance reviews and leadership decisions.

Teams are pushed to take ownership, resolve issues fast, and avoid old-era bureaucracy. “In Alitalia, everything took weeks,” an ITA manager said. “At ITA, if a decision takes more than 24 hours, you must explain why.” That shift alone signals cultural evolution.

“Culture isn’t a memo, it’s daily behavior,” Eberhart said. “We’re not managing change. We are shaping habits.”

Italianità as Strategic Advantage

Where most airlines struggle to differentiate, ITA has a built-in brand asset: Italy. Rather than imitate LH, the airline is doubling down on national character. Its brand position is not just service—it is cultural immersion.

ITA Airways has identified three core values—care, courage, and Italianità, the Italian way of life. Perhaps a Dolce Vita 2.0 culture is in the making for the Italian flag carrier.

Uniforms by Brunello Cucinelli, Italian menu by region, curated wine lists, olive oil-and-bread service in business class—traditional simplicity, minimalist cabin design by Walter De Silva—these are not decorative touches. They feed yield. They retain premium travelers. They build emotional stickiness.

“The world already knows Italy,” Eberhart said. “We don’t need to invent a story. We need to deliver it with credibility.”

This approach is not luxury but one of precision. The CEO doesn’t promise more; he promises better. The strategy is to avoid gimmicks and lean on authenticity. “Offer less, at higher quality,” Eberhart noted. That’s both brand strategy and cost discipline.

Soft Power: The Vatican and the Olympics

ITA is more than a commercial airline; it is a carrier of influence, or at least it aims to be. In 2025, it became the Official Airline of the Vatican and the Official Carrier of the Milano–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. These roles matter not for marketing clichés but for institutional weight.

Transporting the Pope places ITA in a unique space among global carriers. “It’s not just aviation. It’s a responsibility,” an ITA operations executive said. Vatican missions require precision, security, and flexibility—traits ITA must institutionalize anyway.

Likewise, the Winter Olympics deepen credibility. Sponsorships in aviation can become empty cost centers. But this aligns with national resurgence—Italy is rebuilding industrial confidence, and ITA is a visible symbol of that.

Risks Ahead

ITA’s transformation is disciplined, but the next 24 months carry critical risk:

Fleet Reliability

Engine failures on Pratt & Whitney GTF-powered aircraft continue to limit narrow-body operations. Without feeder stability, Rome hub economics remain vulnerable.

Labor Tension

Low pilot utilization from grounded aircraft reduces pay, creating union pressure. Lufthansa-style productivity agreements must be reached without eroding talent morale.

Regulatory Timing

ITA’s revenue strategy depends on U.S. joint venture approval. If delayed, the airline will lag behind Air France-KLM and IAG in North Atlantic competitiveness.

Competitive Pressure

Ultra-low-cost carriers continue to grow in Italy. ITA must defend relevance without diluting yield, maintaining a premium leisure and business mix.

Leadership Profile: Joerg Eberhart

Turnarounds are not solved by vision alone but by structured execution. Eberhart brings an unusual combination to ITA: pilot credibility, European group strategy experience, and venture discipline.

He began his career as a Flight Attendant and later trained as a commercial airline Pilot, logging time on Airbus A320 family aircraft. He still maintains an active license and trains in full-flight simulators every four months.

His management career spans Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, and corporate strategy roles within the group. He helped architect Lufthansa’s SCORE program, responsible for more than €1 billion in recurring EBIT improvements. He also led venture capital investments in European startups, giving him a rare operating mindset: iterate, de-risk, scale.

Internal teams describe him as precise and execution-driven. “He doesn’t do speeches,” one ITA executive said. “He builds systems.”

Deal Timeline

2017 – Lufthansa begins Alitalia strategic study
2019 – Joint bid with FS Group and Atlantia fails
2021 – ITA Airways launches
2022 – Joint bid with MSC Cruises proposed
2023 – Italian government invites Lufthansa to negotiate
2024 – Lufthansa acquires 41% stake
2025 – Eberhart becomes ITA CEO
2025 – Application filed to join A++ joint venture
2026–27 – Lufthansa expected to reach 90% ownership

Outlook: A Strategic Test of Discipline

ITA is no longer a rescue case. It is a system case. Italy has built a carrier designed not for national sentiment but for industrial logic. Lufthansa has acquired more than a brand—it has acquired geography and market access.

The next chapter is not about rapid expansion but about controlled scaling. ITA must resist the temptation to grow for headlines. It must grow for profitability.

The airline’s strategic compass is clear:

• Build Rome as the group’s southern long-haul hub
• Join the A++ joint venture and balance the U.S. revenue share
• Stabilize feeder operations and resolve engine risk
• Protect yield through Italianità positioning
• Hardwire discipline into company culture
  

“Transformation is not a slogan,” Eberhart said. “It is a sequence: stabilize, integrate, grow.”

If he holds that sequence, ITA may become what Alitalia never was: a profitable Italian carrier of global relevance. If not, Europe will add another chapter to its long collection of airline autopsies.

This time, however, ITA does not need to survive alone. It has a system—and a strategy.

Media Q&A

Questions have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity; responses are reproduced in full to preserve meaning.

Q: Will ITA keep the A220 despite engine issues? And how do you see the long-haul fleet evolving?
A (Eberhart): Yes, we’ll keep the A220. Availability of other aircraft types is extremely limited for the next several years, so replacement isn’t realistic. If alternatives were available, we would evaluate them, but at this point there are no open delivery slots. Over the next three years we’ll continue phasing out older A320-family aircraft; by then, more than 95 percent of our fleet will be new-generation. That will give ITA one of the youngest fleets in Europe, with an average age of about six years or less.

On the long-haul side, summer demand was slightly below budget in July–August, but we saw a strong rebound in November — probably deferred leisure demand and travelers choosing to avoid peak-season crowds in places like Venice. Inbound U.S. traffic remains a key driver.

Q: If ITA were to sue Pratt & Whitney, would that be handled by ITA or by Lufthansa?
A (Eberhart): It would be ITA. The damages — grounded aircraft, loss of feeder capacity, and pilot-productivity impacts — are ITA’s direct responsibility. Even if Lufthansa raises its stake to 90 percent, the Italian state holds the remaining 10 percent, and the harm occurs at ITA. Our duty as management is to minimize and recover those losses ourselves.

Q: Which aircraft are grounded?
A (Eberhart): It’s a mix of A220, A320neo, and A321neo models, each with different GTF variants. Roughly 20 aircraft are parked, which affects feeder traffic into Rome and overall utilization.

Q: Do pilots have a monthly pay floor similar to U.S. carriers?
A (Eberhart): We have a new collective agreement designed for flexibility. Minimum guarantees exist, but they can be quite low if flight hours drop sharply — and that’s what creates tension with the unions. Some of our pilots are qualified on multiple fleets (A330neo and A350, for example), even triple-qualified on A320-family plus A330 and A350. The A220 remains a separate line. Mixed-fleet flying adds simulator time and training complexity, but it increases overall productivity.

Q: Do the Olympics or Jubilee periods bring extra capacity?
A (Eberhart): These events don’t always deliver the surges that forecasts predict. We’ll monitor demand and deploy charters selectively, but winter is our low season anyway.

Q: How will North America growth look once the antitrust immunity and joint venture are approved?
A (Eberhart): After A+++ approval, ITA can coordinate routes, pricing, and capacity with United and Air Canada. For instance, adding Newark to complement JFK makes sense, and Houston is another candidate. Discussions must wait for regulatory clearance, but planning is underway. Some new wide-bodies on order will replace A330-200s; net growth is about +1 long-haul aircraft per year through 2030. Rome’s long-haul market has grown roughly 6 percent annually over the past decade — twice the European average — so we may eventually accelerate, but A350 availability is tight until 2032. Used A350s exist but at prices that could break route economics. A 787-9 ER is a potential option for range-critical markets like South America, U.S. West Coast, and Japan, but a Group-level solution may be optimal once Lufthansa is majority owner.

Q: How exactly does the A++ joint venture operate?
A (Eberhart): It’s a contractual commercial arrangement, not a new company. All North Atlantic capacity and revenue are managed as if by one entity, then allocated via agreed KPIs. It’s complex, especially when partners grow at different rates, but it allows joint network and pricing decisions. ITA’s five-member board — three appointed by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, two by Lufthansa — must approve ITA’s entry. The benefits are clear: higher U.S. revenue share and coordinated connectivity.

(Airways) Q: How long will the legacy Alitalia cabins remain in service?
A (Eberhart): As we replace older aircraft with new ones, we’re also harmonizing the interiors. You won’t see the classic Alitalia cabins for long — even the A330-200s we acquired second-hand aren’t representative of ITA’s product. We’re correcting earlier design missteps — for example, white leather and white carpet, which show wear too easily.

(Airways) Q: Could the A321XLR serve transatlantic or longer-range missions?
A (Eberhart): We’re experimenting now with A321neo aircraft in a three-class layout on five- to six-hour routes. If the business case proves viable after four years, the LR or XLR could be compelling. The LR could cover the U.S. East Coast, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa from Rome; the XLR could reach parts of the U.S. West Coast. But to make it work financially, you need at least 10 aircraft and 10–15 routes. So far, modeled portfolios haven’t met that threshold, but results from our current trial may change that.

(Airways) Q: When will ITA join Star Alliance?
A (Eberhart): We’ve already started the process. There’s a long checklist — commercial, IT, terminal, and product-standard alignment — but we expect completion in about six to eight months.

(Airways) Q: Are you returning to London Heathrow?
A (Eberhart): Yes. Thanks to our collaboration with the Lufthansa Group, we’ve secured Heathrow slots; ITA had none left previously. We also operate to London City, but the Heathrow return from Rome is strategically important.

Q: What’s the timeline for integrating Volare into Miles & More?
A (Eberhart): We’re targeting the end of February next year. Some details depend on fiscal and labor-law clarifications with the Italian authorities. We launched a first status match in July to align tier levels. Exact conversion of Volare points to Miles & More miles will follow those regulatory approvals.

Q: What is ITA’s strategy in Milan? Any return to Malpensa?
A (Eberhart): We’re focused on Linate, not Malpensa. Linate-to-Fiumicino feeds the long-haul hub despite strong high-speed rail competition for point-to-point traffic. We have no plans to return to Malpensa. As part of the EU approval process for Lufthansa’s stake, we surrendered Linate slots to British Airways and Air France as remedies.