Lufthansa transfers London-Heathrow slots to ITA Airways
ITA Airways now has slots to operate double-daily flights to London Heathrow Airport (LHR).
Documents filed by London Heathrow Airport’s (LHR) slot coordinator showed that Lufthansa has transferred slots at the airport to ITA Airways, which will enable the Italian carrier to launch double-daily flights to the British capital, marking a return to the airport since its exit in March 2024.
A slot transfer form published by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), a United Kingdom-based slot coordinator for many airports across the world, indicated that Lufthansa has moved some of its slots at LHR to ITA Airways.
The German airline ‘sacrificed’ two daily flights between Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and LHR to facilitate the Italian carrier’s two daily flights between Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) and LHR.
ITA Airways’ flights to LHR are set to launch in March 2026. Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that flight AZ 202 will depart FCO at 07:50 local time (UTC +2), and is scheduled to land at LHR at 09:40 local time (UTC +1). The return itinerary, AZ 203, should depart the British capital at 10:30 and return to the Italian capital at 14:10.
The second daily flight, AZ 204, is scheduled to leave FCO at 13:50, with an arrival time of 15:40 at LHR. The flight back, AZ 207, should depart LHR at 16:30 and land at FCO at 20:10.
Lufthansa Group, the parent company of Lufthansa and a minority shareholder of ITA Airways, announced that ITA Airways would return to LHR on October 28. At the time, the German airline said that ITA Airways’ “detailed summer schedule will be published at a later date.”
According to Cirium’s Diio Mi, Lufthansa had scheduled up to 12 daily flights between FRA and LHR during the summer 2025 season, with the schedule not yet changing for the upcoming summer 2026 season.
ACL’s documents also showed that for the upcoming summer 2026 season, ITA Airways had requested 840 slots at LHR, receiving none. Lufthansa, meanwhile, received six additional slots for the season, now holding 8,760 slots at the airport for the entirety of the summer season.
ITA Airways exited LHR in March 2024, after it had returned its slots at the airport that it had leased from Etihad Airways since the summer 2022 season, a lease it inherited from its predecessor, Alitalia.
While it had ended its LHR-bound flights in March 2024, it still had 12 weekly departures from FCO to London City Airport (LCY), as well as daily summer seasonal flights to London Gatwick Airport (LGW). Itineraries to LGW are not scheduled to return in 2026, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.
ITA Airways also has flights between Milan Linate Airport (LIN) and LCY.
Rytis Beresnevicius
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