By Kavita Mistry 
ITA Airways, the successor to Italy’s perennial loss-making airline Alitalia, said Monday that it had boosted its operational profit last year as sales rose strongly, though it still ended up with a net loss.
The airline, in which Germany’s Lufthansa is now the leading investor, saw its revenues rise by a quarter to 3.1 billion euros ($3.5 billion) last year, as the number of passengers carried increased by one-fifth.
While the company, created in 2021 from the ashes of Alitalia, which the Italian government was forced to take over in 2017, still reported a net loss of 227 million euros, it reported for the first time a profit before interest and tax charges, or EBIT, of 337 million euros.
“The approved financial statement demonstrates significant growth for ITA Airways in 2024, evidenced by achieving positive EBIT for the first time in the company’s history,” said chief executive Joerg Eberhart.
Lufthansa took a 41 percent stake in ITA Airways in January via a capital increase of 325 million euros, gaining operational control and the right to eventually fully take over the airline.
The Italian state still owns the remainder of the company and has a say over strategic decisions. Eberhart praised the efforts of the airline’s staff in helping improve its performance.
“Based on this solid result, it is plausible to achieve a sustainable net result balance thanks to synergies with the Lufthansa Group,” he said.
The company said that in the first quarter of 2025 revenues rose by 15 percent from the period last year.
