After more than a year of negotiations, the European Commission has approved the entry of the German Lufthansa into the Italian state-owned ITA Airways.

The Commission announced on Saturday in Brussels that the remedial package proposed by the German airline fulfilled the conditions for the deal.

As part of the concessions, Lufthansa leaves flight connections in Italy to its competitors Easyjet, Air France-KLM and International Airline Group.

With the green light from Brussels, Europe’s largest aviation group in terms of sales has cleared the final hurdle for investing in ITA.

Both Lufthansa and the Italian Finance Ministry had to make commitments to the EU executive for final approval. This meant that competitors were allowed to operate more short- and long-haul flights from Italy and transfer take-off and landing rights at Milan Linate Airport.

The plan is for the German airline to initially take over 41% of ITA shares for a capital contribution of 325 million euros (343 million US dollars).

Over the next few years, a complete takeover of the airline could take place for more than 800 million euros.

Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) was formed in 2020 from the financially troubled state airline Alitalia. According to the latest figures, the company employs almost 4,900 people.