ITA Airways exits SkyTeam after Lufthansa Group integration

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ITA Airways has terminated its membership in the SkyTeam Alliance, which will see the Italian airline exit the group by 30 April 2025. The decision follows ITA Airways’ final approval by regulators to join the Lufthansa Group, announced last month. In addition to joining the Miles & More program of Lufthansa Group, ITA Airways intends to align with Star Alliance as early as next year. Lufthansa Group is reported to have already commenced talks with Star Alliance officials to get the ball rolling. SkyTeam said it and its member airlines are working with ITA Airways to ensure a smooth transition for customers and partners during the exit phase.

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With immediate effect, 36 million Miles & More members can earn and redeem miles on all ITA Airways flights. At the same time, the 2.7 million members of the ITA Airways frequent flyer program Volare can earn and redeem their points on all flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. With the start of the summer flight schedule on March 30, 2025, passengers of ITA Airways and Lufthansa Group can enjoy the following benefits:

Under one roof in Frankfurt and Munich: Using the same terminal is an essential prerequisite for quick and comfortable transfers at the Lufthansa Group’s hubs. With the start of the upcoming summer flight schedule, ITA Airways will move into the Lufthansa Airlines terminals in Frankfurt and Munich – into Terminal 1 in Frankfurt and into Terminal 2 in Munich, significantly reducing passengers’ transfer times. At all other hubs of the group, as well as in Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate, the Lufthansa Group airlines already offer their flights in the same terminal areas as ITA Airways.

Lounge access: Starting 30 March, ITA Airways passengers will also be able to visit and use the approximately 130 lounges of the Lufthansa Group and its partners on their travels. The lounges of ITA Airways will also be open to Lufthansa Group passengers from this date.

Code sharing: By adding ITA Airways flights to the route networks of Lufthansa Group Airlines, customers will have more choice and greater flexibility. With the start of the summer flight schedule, more than 100 flight connections will initially share their flight numbers and can thus be more easily combined. Once fully implemented, this code-sharing will give ITA Airways passengers access to over 250 destinations of the Lufthansa Group. For passengers of the Lufthansa Group airlines, the offer will be expanded to include ITA Airways domestic flights to Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria and Puglia. All codeshare connections can be booked from 25 February through all global sales channels, including online and via the Lufthansa Group and ITA Airways apps.

Coordinated flight schedules between the hubs: The flight connections between the Lufthansa Group’s hubs (Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels) and ITA Airways’ two main airports (Rome and Milan) are optimized and better distributed throughout the day to offer guests more travel flexibility. Coordinated departure times mean less waiting time for guests and better connections to long-haul destinations.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said: “Now that ITA Airways has become a member of our airline family a few days ago, we want to push ahead with the merger quickly, so that ITA and its passengers, as well as the guests of our other passenger airlines, can quickly benefit from the advantages of an expanded Lufthansa Group. “We are also confident that ITA Airways will realise a profit as early as this year. All in all, we are convinced that today, the start of the integration of ITA Airways into the Lufthansa Group, marks the beginning of a joint success story for customers, employees and shareholders of ITA Airways and the Lufthansa Group,” Spohr added. The change comes as Lufthansa Group invests in another new partner, acquiring a minority stake in airBalctic. Meanwhile, customers of SkyTeam have been advised to consult their airlines directly with questions related to SkyTeam Elite and Elite Plus benefits, SkyPriority services, lounge access and loyalty mileage accrual and redemption for upcoming travel involving ITA Airways. SkyTeam member airlines will continue to serve nine cities across Italy, with more than 1,000 flights to and from the country operated weekly by Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, Delta Air Lines, KLM, Korean Air, MEA, SAS, Saudia and TAROM.

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