Lufthansa and the Italian government are making "further progress" in talks on the German group's bid to acquire ITA Airways, the country's finance ministry has indicated. Economy and finance minister Giancarlo Giorgetti met Lufthansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr and ITA president Antonino Turicchi to discuss the takeover proposals on 30 March in Italy. "During the positive conversation, the shared industrial plan was illustrated which will determine the development of ITA Airways in terms of fleet, network and strategic objectives," says the ministry in a 30 March statement. "With today's meeting... further progress is made in the direction of the industrial partnership between the two carriers." Separately, ITA says its board of directors has approved the business plan shared with Lufthansa Group. In January, Lufthansa made an offer for a minority stake in ITA plus options to acquire the remainder at a later date. "The plan is to agree on the initial acquisition of a minority stake as well as on options to purchase the remaining shares at a later date," said Lufthansa. Talks are focusing on the possibility of an equity investment in ITA, as well as its commercial and operational integration into Lufthansa Group. ITA, which is the successor to former flag carrier Alitalia, on 29 March reported an annual net loss of €486 million ($527 million) for 2022. Revenue reached €1.58 billion last year, of which €1.27 billion came from the passenger traffic business. During the year, ITA operated some 97,000 scheduled flights and transported around 10.1 million passengers. The airline expects its revenue to grow substantially in 2023, driven by the expansion of its route network and fleet size.

Ryanair plans to launch nine new UK summer routes, including five from Belfast, following the government's decision to cut domestic air passenger duty (APD) by half from 1 April. New routes from Belfast include flights to Cardiff, Edinburgh, East Midlands, London Stansted and Manchester. The airline also plans to launch flights between Bournemouth and Edinburgh, Newquay and London Stansted, as well as services from Edinburgh to Newquay and London Stansted. Ryanair's head of communications Jade Kirwan states: "Reducing APD will result in market growth in the UK, and these new routes show just that with 74 weekly flights scheduled across Belfast, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Edinburgh, East Midlands, London, Manchester and Newquay representing 95% growth on our UK domestic schedule compared to last summer." He continues: "While the halving of APD on domestic flights from Apr 2023 has allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes to our UK schedule for summer 2023, if we are to continue to grow and drive traffic/tourism recovery for the UK, the UK government should immediately scrap APD for all travel and provide incentives for airlines like Ryanair to stimulate growth and recovery for the entire UK market."

Airbus has awarded Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) a contract to produce A320neo cargo doors, which will be manufactured at a new facility in Hyderabad. The airframer says that the deal will help to support the ramp-up of production for its A320 programme. TASL is an existing supplier of Airbus, producing aileron and Sharklet panels for the A320, and a range of panels, spars and stiffeners for the A350. "We have an ongoing relationship with Airbus based on trust and operational excellence, and this new contract win will further bolster our partnership in aerospace manufacturing in India," says TASL managing director and chief executive Sukaran Singh. TASL is a sister company to Air India, which in February signed a letter of intent to order 140 A320neos, 70 A321neos, 34 A350-1000s and six A350-900s. TASL also produces components for Boeing, Pilatus and Sikorsky civilian aircraft.