Frankfurt - German airline Lufthansa said Wednesday it is
launching a new subsidiary in Italy called Lufthansa Italia.
With an initial fleet of six Airbus A319 aircraft, Lufthansa
Italia will offer flights from Milan's Malpensa airport to major
European destinations from February 2009.
'Lufthansa Italia will position us in an important market
characterised by strong demand, which also holds out opportunities
for buoyant growth in the future,' said Lufthansa chief executive
Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
'Milan and Lombardy rank among Europe's economically most
important and strongest regions. A good route network connecting them
with Europe's principal cities is essential,' he said.
Lufthansa Italia, which will be founded under Italian company law,
'blends traditional Lufthansa values, notably reliability and high
quality, with Italian flair,' the German airline said.
Lufthansa, which has been approached to take a stake in bankrupt
national carrier Alitalia, already has a subsidiary in Italy called
Air Dolomiti.
It also has a code-sharing arrangement with the Italian airline
Air One, which operates mainly domestic routes.
'Lufthansa Italia and Air Dolomiti will in future work alongside
each other as 100-per-cent Lufthansa subsidiaries,' a Lufthansa
spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman did not rule out Lufthansa taking a stake in
a relaunched Alitalia, following the government's decision to sell
the airline to an Italian business consortium, Cai.
Cai is looking for a foreign partner, either Lufthansa or Air
France-KLM, to take a 20-per-cent share in Alitalia.
'We are monitoring the situation concerning Alitalia very
closely,' the Lufthansa spokeswoman said.
Lufthansa Italia will start flights to the first two destinations,
Barcelona and Paris (Charles de Gaulle) from February 2. Flights to
Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest and Madrid will be added four weeks
later.
London (Heathrow) and Lisbon will be brought into the network with
the start of the 2009 summer flight schedules at the end of March,
the airline said.
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