BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The EU Commission is expected to announce its decision this Wednesday on whether Lufthansa may take over the state-owned Italian airline Ita. The government in Rome, together with Group CEOs Carsten Spohr and Antonino Turrichi, will make a statement at a press conference around noon (12:30 p.m.). According to media reports, Lufthansa CEO Spohr already expected Brussels to approve the takeover around a month ago.

Plans for the long-established German company to acquire a stake in its Italian competitor have been in the pipeline for more than a year. Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) emerged from the state-owned airline Alitalia in 2020, which had fallen into serious turbulence. The company currently has around 4,500 employees. The Lufthansa Group has almost 99,000 employees.

The EU Commission had concerns that Lufthansa was able to concentrate too much market power on transatlantic long-haul flights and on short-haul flights between Italy and Central European countries./mjm/DP/jha