ITA Airways, mission accomplished: company closes 2025 in profit. Now only the last step to Lufthansa is missing
ITA Airways hits one of the most important goals in its young history for the first time: closing the budget in [...]
ITA Airways
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ITA Airways hits one of the most important goals in its young history for the first time: close the budget in profit.
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Indeed, the Board of Directors has approved the draft 2025 consolidated budget, and the numbers tell a picture that, until recently, seemed anything but a foregone conclusion: net profit of 209 million euros, Positive EBIT of 25 million and EBITDA at 404 million.
Translated: the Italian company finally ended the fiscal year in the black, marking a key step in the path of rehabilitation and transformation initiated after the carrier's inception.
A historic achievement for the new ITA
The figure that weighs the most, inevitably, is that of the positive net income of 209 million euros, the first in the history of ITA Airways. An important leap, especially considering that the improvement over 2024 was equal to 436 million.
No less significant is the fact that the company registered for the second consecutive year a positive EBIT, climbed to 25 million, with an increase of 22 million compared with the previous year. This is a sign that goes beyond just reading the balance sheet: it means that ITA, while still in a delicate phase, has shown that it can stand on the market with a more solid foundation than in the past.
Stable revenues, more efficiency and better accounts
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In 2025 the total revenues stood at 3.2 billion, of which 2.8 billion from passenger traffic, up by 2.7% compared with 2024. Also improving was theEBITDA, arrived at 404 million, with a progress of 67 million year on year.
The cash figure was also positive: 639 million, i.e. 163 million more than the end of 2023. Another indicator that confirms that the work done on the company's structure and industrial management is beginning to produce concrete effects.
Fewer flights and fewer passengers, but better performance
One of the most interesting aspects of the budget is that the improved accounts come in a year when ITA Airways operated over 123 thousand scheduled flights, down by the11% than in 2024, and transported 16.2 million passengers, l'8% less On an annual basis.
Yet the load factor rose to 83.4%, with an increase of 2.1 percentage points. In essence, the company flew less, carried fewer people, but did so more efficiently. And this is probably where we see one of the most important changes: not the race for volume, but the search for economic balance and quality of filling.
The first effects of synergies with Lufthansa
ITA explains that these results were achieved through the consolidation of internal work and also To the contribution of the first part of the synergies achieved with the Lufthansa Group. And it is a far from minor step.
Because 2025 was by no means an easy year. The company openly cites an environment made more complicated by several factors: the international geopolitical framework, the impact of the remedies imposed by the European Commission to authorize the deal with Lufthansa, short- and medium-haul aircraft availability problems related to engine Pratt & Whitney, as well as the absence of a partner carrier's commercial contribution on routes between Italy and the United States, which remain the top international market for ITA.
Despite all this, the accounts have improved. And this makes the result even more significant.
However, there is one point that should not be underestimated.
Along with the positive news, ITA also puts in black and white the knot that remains open: Finance charges associated with fleet leases. The company admits that the operating result Is not yet fully sustainable precisely because of the weight of these contracts, stressing that it will be necessary to continue working to achieve truly structural profitability.
This is an important detail, because it avoids turning the profit figure into an overly triumphalist narrative. The path taken seems to be the right one, but the game is not yet completely won.
During 2025 ITA Airways also continued fleet renewal. They entered 10 new aircraft and, with the release of 3 old generation aircraft, the company ended the year with 106 total aircraft, of which 24 wide body e 82 narrow body.
The data that matters most is that the 70% in the fleet is a new generation, with an average age of 6.5 years. A central element in both operating costs and business image, as well as sustainability.
Now the last mile is missing
The words of the CEO Joerg Eberhart and the president Sandro Pappalardo both go in the same direction: this budget represents a turning point, not a point of arrival. ITA celebrates the first profit in its history, vindicates the validity of the path it has taken, and also openly links this achievement to its collaboration with Lufthansa.
And this is precisely where it comes full circle. For after years of uncertainty, business plans, negotiations and regulatory steps, ITA Airways has finally completed the hardest part: proving it can close the books in the black.
Now, at least on the level of industrial and financial narrative, only the last step is missing: to transform this company definitively into a fully integrated part of the Lufthansa universe. The mission to put the accounts in order, for the first time, seems accomplished. Now it remains to be seen how quickly this turnaround will translate into a Increasingly concrete and irreversible divestment to German group.
