Lufthansa intends to exercise its option to acquire a majority stake in ITA Airways. The group will increase its shareholding in the Italian carrier from 41% to 90% "as early as" June, says chief executive Carsten Spohr. The transaction is set to close at the previously agreed purchase price of €325 million ($382 million). Lufthansa notes that the stake increase is subject to regulatory approvals, primarily from the European Commission and the US Department of Justice and foresees completion in the first quarter of 2027. Thereafter, ITA will be "fully integrated into the Lufthansa Group, both organizationally and financially", adds the group. The additional stake's seller is the Italian ministry of economy and finance. Lufthansa says the ministry will continue to hold the remaining 10% of shares in ITA. From 2028, this tranche may also be acquired by Lufthansa, it notes. "Following the acquisition of the first 41% stake in ITA Airways last year, we promised the fastest airline integration in our history," states Spohr. "We aimed to complete all major integration steps into the Lufthansa Group within just 18 months. "We have not only kept this promise. We were even faster: all customer-facing interfaces are already integrated today – with the exception of North Atlantic flights, where, as is well known, regulatory approval for our merger is still pending." He says Lufthansa is meanwhile "progressing" in the cargo business. Since last year, Lufthansa Cargo has been marketing ITA's cargo capacity, which corresponds to the additional capacity of three Boeing 777 Freighters.

US airline fares were up 21% year on year in April, and 6.3% versus the previous month, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates. Fares have been raised by carriers seeking to recoup the higher cost of jet fuel amid the ongoing Iran war. Meanwhile, energy costs for US consumers increased 18% year on year in April and were likewise up 6.3% from March levels. The "all items" consumer price index, commonly used as a measure of US inflation, rose 3.8% during the 12 months ended in April, compared with 3.3% for the 12 months ended in March.

Embraer foresees that its commercial aircraft orders will come in below 2025's total this year but remains confident in E-Jet demand. During first-quarter earnings call on 8 May, Embraer chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto said the Brazilian airframer was currently involved in E-Jet sales campaigns in "almost all" regions across the globe. "We are optimistic that we will have a good year as well," he says, but he adds: "Not as good as last year, because last year we had amazing sales of E-Jets." Cirium data shows that Embraer received 221 E-Jet orders last year. These comprised 142 E195-E2s, 15 E190-E2s and 64 E175s. Orders had totalled 120 in 2024 and 75 in 2023. Gomes Neto acknowledges that airlines have reduced capacity and cut costs as a result of fuel-price increases amid the Middle East conflict. "Our commercial aviation team is looking at that very closely. But so far, we haven't seen any impact," he says, adding: "We haven't seen any customer postponing [aircraft acquisition] campaigns or having even asked us to delay the delivery of aircraft." In the realm of production, Embraer has made progress in efforts to ease supply-chain bottlenecks and spread deliveries more evenly across the year, it says. "We still have some pacers that we are working with very closely [which are] pushing our deliveries further to the next quarters," notes Gomes Neto. "But we have seen a lot of improvements." Deliveries of Pratt & Whitney PW1900G engines for E190-E2s and E195-E2s are "under control", while supply of GE Aerospace CF34-8E engines for the E175 is "improving", he says. Overall, Gomes Neto sees no risk to Embraer's February-issued guidance of 80-85 E-Jet deliveries in 2026, up from 78 last year. Efforts to spread deliveries more evenly across the year will continue into 2027, he says. Work with suppliers is underway to ensure "we will have a better start in '27 than we had in '26". During the first quarter, the manufacturer delivered 10 E-Jets, up from seven last year. Embraer targets annual production of 120 E-Jets by the end of 2029, says Gomes Neto. The commercial aircraft division's first-quarter adjusted EBIT loss nearly tripled to $28 million, from $9.7 million last year, while its revenue grew 45% to $293 million as a result of increased deliveries and pricing. Group-wide adjusted EBIT increased 52% to $94 million on the back of 31% growth in revenue, to $1.45 billion.