Lufthansa has made an offer to the Italian government to take a minority stake in ITA plus options to acquire the remainder of the company at a later date. The German group says it made an approach to the Italian ministry of economy and finance today, seeking a memorandum of understanding that would lead to exclusive negotiations. "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," says Lufthansa. Talks would focus on the possibility of an equity investment in ITA, as well as the commercial and operational integration of the Italian airline into Lufthansa Group. Implementation of this would be subject to regulatory approval, notes Lufthansa. "For Lufthansa Group, Italy is the most important market outside of its home markets and the US," says the group. "Italy's importance for both business and private travel lies in its strong export-oriented economy and status as one of Europe's top vacation spots." In September 2022, a report by online news service Affari Italiani indicated that the new Italian government led by prime minister Giorgia Meloni would move forward with the sale process for ITA, after previously expressing doubt about the transaction. US-based investment fund Certares had been selected by the previous Italian government as the sole bidder for a majority stake in the company. Exclusive negotiations with the fund later ended without agreement. ITA was launched as a successor to former flag carrier Alitalia in October 2021, taking on much of its fleet, staff, branding and other assets.

The week of 9 January was the strongest sales period for Ryanair Group in the company's history, as bookings for Easter and the summer surged early in the new year, chief executive Michael O'Leary has indicated. Over 2 million bookings were made over the weekend, up from a previous 2019-era record of 1.6 million sales. In total, the airline tallied 4.95 million ticket sales during the whole week, up from a previous record of 4.12 million. Each day from Monday through Thursday set a new daily record. "There seems to be very high demand," O'Leary observed during a press event in London on 17 January, adding that bookings were coming in despite robust pricing and a lack of promotional offers by the airline, in contrast with previous bumper periods. "Yes, there's lot of cheap seats out there, but [strong bookings] are not on the back of a seat sale… There just seems to be very strong demand." O'Leary believes there is the potential for this week's sales number to surpass 5 million for the first time ever. He attributes the trend to customers booking early in the expectation that prices will rise, with other indicators, such as hotel and accommodation sales, showing a corresponding surge in interest. It also demonstrates that consumers are shrugging off the risk of recession and the cost-of-living crisis. Ryanair is seeing "no sign" of wider economic problems filtering through. An ongoing problem facing the carrier currently is a lack of capacity, constrained by a shortage of aircraft given production delays at Boeing. Ryanair was supposed to receive 21 Boeing 737 Max jets from September through December, but only got 12. It was then due to receive a further 39 from January to end-April, and expects to receive 30-35 by end-May, after which date it refuses to take deliveries because it is busy with operations. "To be fair to Boeing. the production does seem to have ramped up," says O'Leary. These expected deliveries would still put the airline "well on track" to achieve its goal of reaching 225 million passengers by fully year 2026. O'Leary sees the current European airline market as marked by a lack of overall capacity, with many carriers, especially legacy airlines, having pulled aircraft from the market amid the pandemic that have not been, and may not for some time be, replaced. "There is still a remarkably restrained capacity particularly across short-haul Europe," he says, arguing that the only airline that has placed meaningful extra capacity into the sector is Ryanair, which is offering 110% of its pre-Covid capacity in the quarter to end-March. Yet O'Leary is careful to caution that bumper sales and restricted capacity may not translate into stellar profitability for the carrier, with high oil prices impacting its bottom line. He explains that the challenge facing the carrier, which is roughly 50% hedged for full year 2024, is that a rise in oil prices could increase its cost base on its unhedged requirements, while a decline could enable those relatively unhedged airlines to undercut it on pricing. Given this uncertainty, O'Leary comments only that there is a "realistic prospect of very strong passenger volumes and rising airfares" through 2023, unless the carrier is extremely lucky. "If we have a year of strong demand, slightly higher fares, if oil prices stay stable or fall, and we have no adverse impacts in Covid or Ukraine," he says, "we'll make a bundle of money this year."

The Russia-Ukraine crisis will have “long lasting impacts” on lessors’ decisions about where to place their assets in the future, the president of Carlyle Aviation Partners has said. Robert Korn, speaking on 17 January at the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dublin conference, says the war “really casts a shadow on where we should be deploying our assets and where we should be thinking of investing our capital that we manage, primarily for large institutions for pensions and endowments”. He adds that lessors are “going to be questioned about where they are deploying assets”. Korn has seen “significant changes” to both the terms and price of aircraft insurance policies as a result of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Carlyle launched legal action against its insurers in a Miami court at the end of October and also began legal action in the UK in early January. Referring to the ongoing conflict, Korn says: “We don’t know when this will end; we just know it will end at some point. The end of active hostilities and the recovery of trade and relationships are two very different dates in the future, and it’s going to take quite a long time for financiers, for lessors to truly feel comfortable returning to many of these places.” He adds: “In saying that, we’re also being forced to look at countries that border those regions and try and pick and choose today which we feel comfortable and not comfortable putting aircraft in.”